Quotes from The Obesity Code - Part 2
From The Obesity Code, by Jason Fung, MD
Part 4: The Social Phenomenon of Obesity
Chapter 11: Big Food, More Food[,] and The New Science of Diabesity
Page 131: “It is simply not necessary to eat the minute we wake up. We imagine the need to ‘fuel up’ for the day ahead. However, our body has already done that automatically. Every morning, just before we wake up, a natural circadian rhythm jolts our bodies with a heady mix of growth hormone, cortisol, epinephrine[,] and norepinephrine (adrenalin). This cocktail stimulates the liver to make new glucose, essentially giving us a shot of the good stuff to wake us up. This effect is called the dawn phenomenon, and it has been well described for decades.”
Page 133: “There are some commonsense questions you can ask yourself about breakfast. Are you hungry at breakfast? If not, listen to your body and don’t eat. Does breakfast make you hungry? If you eat a slice of toast and drink a glass of orange juice in the morning—are you hungry an hour later? If so, then don’t eat breakfast. If you are hungry and want to eat breakfast, then do so. But avoid sugars and refined carbohydrates. Skipping breakfast does not give you the freedom to eat a Krispy Kreme donut as a mid-morning snack either.”
Page 134: “That high insulin levels cause both obesity and type 2 diabetes has profound implications. The treatment for both is to lower insulin levels, yet current treatments focus on increasing insulin levels, which is exactly wrong. Giving insulin for type 2 diabetes will worsen, not improve, the disease. But can lowering insulin levels cure type 2 diabetes? Absolutely. But the many misunderstandings about type 2 diabetes would require another book to clarify.”
Chapter 12: Poverty and Obesity
Page 140: “Why are highly refined carbohydrates so cheap? Why are unprocessed carbohydrates so much more expensive? The government lowers the cost of production with hefty agricultural subsidies. But not all foods get equal treatment.”
Page 141-142: “The government is subsidizing, with our own tax dollars, the very foods that are making us obese. Obesity is effectively the result of government policy. Federal subsidies encourage the cultivation of large amounts of corn and wheat, which are processed into many foods. These foods, in turn, become far more affordable, which encourages their consumption. Large-scale consumption of highly processed carbohydrates leads to obesity. More tax dollars are then needed to support anti-obesity programs. Even more dollars are needed for medical treatment of obesity-related problems.”
Chapter 13: Childhood Obesity
Page 148: “Dr. David Ludwig recently examined the relationship between the weights of 513,501 women and their 1,164,750 offspring. Increased maternal weight gain is strongly associated with increased neonatal weight gain. Because both mother and the fetus share the same blood supply, any hormonal imbalances, such as high insulin levels, are automatically and directly transmitted through the placenta from the mother to the growing fetus.
Page 150: “Other studies confirmed these results. Dr. Philip Nader from the University of California San Diego randomized 5106 grade three to grade five students to education with ‘healthy’ food and increased exercise. Fifty-six schools received the special program, and forty schools (the control group) did not. Once again, children receiving the extra indoctrination ate a lower-fat diet and retained this knowledge for years afterward. It was ‘the largest school-based randomized trial ever conducted.’ They ate less and exercised more. They just didn’t lose any weight.”
"Page 152: “Snacks tend to be cookies, pretzels, crackers[,] and other foods that are very high in refined carbohydrates, so reducing snacks reduced refined carbohydrate intake. Reducing sugar and refined carbohydrates will reduce insulin. Reducing snacking frequency prevents persistent high insulin levels, a key component of insulin resistance. These strategies lower insulin levels—the crucial, central problem of obesity. The program decreased consumption of packaged snacks and fruit juice (by approximately one-half cup daily). This study’s results could not be more different from those of previous ones. Both the 2- and 3.5-year-old children showed significantly better weight reduction compared to the control group. The prevalence of obesity was reduced by 2-percent to 3 percent. Success at long last!”