Are your favorite foods making you sick?

A study in the journal Nature suggests that emulsifiers—commonly used ingredients in many favorite processed foods—may be interfering with bacteria in our digestive tracts and causing increases in metabolic syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, and obesity.

Ingredients such as lecithin, carrageenan, polysorbate80, polyglycerols and xanthan and other “gums” improve the texture and shelf-life of many supermarket foods and keep ingredients such as oils and fats from separating. They are found in many ice creams, baked goods, salad dressings, veggie burgers, non-dairy milks and hamburger patties.

Several commonly used ingredients in many popular processed foods could be interfering with bacteria in our digestive tracts yielding increases in obesity, metabolic syndrome, IBS and more. Dr Oksana Aron can help you address many of these health concerns.

In the study, when fed emulsifiers, the mice who had normal immune systems developed mild intestinal inflammation and a metabolic disorder that led them to eat more. They became obese, hyperglycemic and insulin resistant. The mice with abnormal immune systems developed chronic colitis.

Food additives could be inducing inflammation

Emulsifiers seem to change the gut microbiota (or environment) and how bacteria interact with the intestine. This paves the way for inflammation. While emulsifiers may not be the sole cause of the rise in obesity, they could very well be a factor.

Many emulsifiers and food additives are considered safe by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, the FDA has not determined safe levels of consumption, particularly because people consume emulsifiers in so many different foods.

Additional studies on humans are needed to better understand how emulsifiers impact humans.

Do you need to lose weight?

Oksana Aron, M.D. is a bariatric physician and internist, specializing in medical treatment of overweight and obese persons:

“Through our comprehensive program, many individuals have lost well in excess of 20% of their initial body weight using a combination of appetite suppressants and a low calorie diet, while eating just regular grocery store foods.”

You can visit Dr. Oksana Aron’s website at WeightLossNYC.com

Acknowledgements

• Sima Michaels Dembo, MPH, Public Healthcare consultant and writer is a guest contributor to this blog.
• Chassaing, Benoit, et. al., Dietary emulsifiers impact the mouse gut microbiota promoting colitis and metabolic syndrome, Nature, 519, 92-96, Published online 2/25/15. Accessed 3/5/15.
• Grossman, Elizabeth., How Emulsifiers Are Messing with Our Guts (and Making Us Fat), Civil Eats, February 25, 2015. Accessed 3/5/15.

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It doesn’t have to be this way. Your healthy body is waiting inside to get out. What actions will you take today to improve your health and wellness?

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Americans continue to gain weight

Several striking news reports reflect that in the US, more adults who are obese outnumber those who are just overweight. The LA Times reported notes from published in JAMA Internal Medicine quoting “adults who are obese now outnumber those who are merely overweight.”

[Researchers] estimated that 67.6 million Americans over the age of 25 were obese as of 2012, and an additional 65.2 million were overweight.

• Washington Post remarks “"[this is] a startling shift from 20 years ago when 63 percent of men and 55 percent of women were overweight or obese and a depressing sign that campaigns to get Americans to eat healthier and exercise more may be failing.”
• CBS News (website) notes the ”analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2007 to 2012 to estimate the prevalence of overweight and obesity.” including details on “15,208 men and women age 25 or older.”
• TIME magazine iterated “40% of men were overweight and 35% of men were obese” — “30% of women were overweight and 37% were obese.” Numbers “are similar to those estimated by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which suggest that one third of American adults are obese.”
• and MedPage Today remarked “33% of Americans ages 25 to 54, and 28% of those 55 and older, fell into the normal weight category of having a body mass index (BMI) of 18.5-24.9.”

Am I obese? or just Overweight?

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Slow down your eating to speed up weight loss

When you sit down to eat, do you savor it slowly or do you gobble it up in record time? Did you know that eating quickly can make you gain weight because your body hasn't registered how full your stomach really is?

Well, that's not the only news. Taking your time to eat can help prevent you from overeating, but there's a difference in how this affects your body, depending on whether you're considered normal weight, overweight or obese. Read on for more details.

Eating quickly can make you gain weight because your body hasn't registered how full your stomach is. Taking your time to eat can help prevent you from overeating, but how this affects your body depends on whether you're considered normal weight, overweight or obese.

Bite for bite, pound for pound

In the study published by the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, two groups were observed: one group of normal-weight individuals and another of overweight and obese individuals. Both groups were asked to consume two meals, one at a slow pace with no time constraints in mind in which they were asked to stop and put the spoon down in between bites, and a second one at a fast speed with an imagined time constraint, large bites and quick chewing without putting the spoon down for breaks.

The results:

• Both the normal-weight and overweight groups were less hungry after eating the slower meal.
• They also tended to drink more water, which could have affected the amount of calories they consumed.

What can we learn from this? Taking our time and enjoying our meals—healthy food, mind you—we can ensure we'll be taking in a proper amount of calories. Plus, don't forget your H₂O…

Get more than diet tips

Learn how to lose weight and stay healthy: Call us at 718-491-5525 today and schedule your first appointment with Dr. Aron