Disease Proof : Disease Proof : Health & Nutrition News & Commentary : Dr. Joel Fuhrman

This is creepy! A new study in the journal Human Brain Mapping claims obese people have 8% less brain train tissue than normal-weight people. I guess you really do have to be stupid to eat fast food:

Obese people had lost brain tissue in the frontal and temporal lobes, areas of the brain critical for planning and memory, and in the anterior cingulate gyrus (attention and executive functions), hippocampus (long-term memory) and basal ganglia (movement), the researchers said in a statement today. Overweight people showed brain loss in the basal ganglia, the corona radiata, white matter comprised of axons, and the parietal lobe (sensory lobe).

"The brains of obese people looked 16 years older than the brains of those who were lean, and in overweight people looked 8 years older," Paul Thompson, senior author of the study and a UCLA professor of neurology said.

No pun intended, but this is a no-brainer. Dr. Fuhrman insists its America’s poor diet that makes us overweight and sick with chronic disease, same goes for dementia:

The same factors that cause atherosclerosis, leading to heart attacks and strokes, also create dementia, and I am referring to both vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s. This includes the same diets that are high in animal fat and low in vitamins, minerals, fruits, and green vegetables.1 Of course, smoking and lack of physical exercise play a role in these common diseases, but the point is that it does not have to happen to you. These diseases, and others that plague modern America, are not the inevitable consequences of aging. They can actually resolve and improve with age or can be avoided entirely. They are simply the result of years of poor nutrition and an unhealthy lifestyle.

My hope for you is that through this eating-style, you, like my patients who have embraced this program, can rid yourself of migraine headaches, acne, autoimmune diseases, and diabetes. So many of my patients have restored their health after conventional physicians—and the conventional beliefs about the inevitability of disease— told them their problems were going to be life long. Their doctors were wrong.

So to help ensure your diet doesn’t make you demented. Dr. Fuhrman suggests eating plenty of nuts and seeds, like walnuts and pumpkin seeds. They’re packed with brain-building omega-3 fatty acids.

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Editor's Note: This is Dr. Fuhrman's follow up to this post: The 4H Pledge. This Week is Our County's 4H fair.

America is certainly beautiful and one of the best places in the world to live, but our population of proud Americans has let their health deteriorate. We are not living up to our heritage as leaders in technology, in health, in fitness, and in doing what is right for humanity. The image of overfed, fat and sickly Americans has become a common joke the world over.

The number of obese Americans is higher than the number of those who smoke, use illegal drugs, or suffer from other physical ailments. A poor diet and even being moderately overweight is a major risk factor associated with highly prevalent, serious diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, and the diet-style that creates these diseases fuels out-of-control medical costs.

In the 20th century, the average American diet shifted from one based on fresh, minimally processed vegetable foods to one based on animal products and highly refined, processed foods. As a result, Americans now consume far more calories from fat, cholesterol, refined sugar, animal protein, sodium, white flour, and far less fiber and plant-derived nutrients. Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer have skyrocketed. Our diet is killing us and resulting in a health care crisis no economy can afford.

The saddest part is the needless medical tragedies that cause so much unnecessary suffering, with deaths and serious chronic diseases arising out of nutritional ignorance that never had to occur in the first place. How do we measure the pain, suffering, and emotional distress thrust upon individuals and families as a result of this staggering epidemic of broken hearts?

Wrong information begets bad results and good information begets good results. Consider these three critical points.

• Americans have adopted a distorted viewpoint that doctors and drugs are the answer to all their health problems.

• Unhealthy food is addicting

• Low micro-nutrient intake leads to overeating

These three simple facts helped create the problem that is killing most Americans, and solving these simple truths is the solution to what ails America.

Very few people take advantage of modern nutritional science that can bless us with the potential to live longer and in greater health than ever before in human history. Many rally against the criticism of their junk food (junkatarian) lifestyle and food addictions. We can see this everywhere and even in the comments posted here. They make it clear how powerful food addictions are, and the desire of many to want to squelch this much needed message and purpose.

We have a mission to change Americans and it will not be silenced.

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Clearly, we’re dropping the ball here. A new report in Academic Pediatrics says the rate of severe childhood obesity has increased three-fold over the last 25 years, with the biggest jump among minorities living below the poverty level. Roughly 2.7 million kids in the U.S. are obese.

he research by Skelton and colleagues is the first of its kind to use the new classification and detail the severity of the problem. They found that the prevalence of severe obesity tripled (from 0.8 percent to 3.8 percent) in the period from 1976-80 to 1999-2004. Based on the data, there are 2.7 million children in the U.S. who are considered severely obese.

Increases in severe obesity were highest among blacks and Mexican-Americans and among those below the poverty level. For example, the percentage of Mexican-American children in the severely obese category was 0.9 percent in 1976-80 and 5.2 percent in 1999-2004.

Researchers also looked at the impact of severe obesity and found that a third of children in the severely obese category were classified as having metabolic syndrome, a group of risk factors for heart attack, stroke and diabetes.

No doubt. It’s scary, but hardly surprising. In January, a study found more Americans have multiple chronic illnesses—like cancer, heart disease and diabetes—now, then ever before. Eek!

Via ScienceDaily.

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