This is not news to me but it is nice to see dieticians proving what I have been saying for years.  Rule #4 of the Leptin Diet is: Eat a breakfast containing protein.  Protein is like 2 x 4s and plywood showing up at your liver’s jobsite.  Metabolism is kicked into gear.  Protein, unlike carbohydrates, has to be taken apart and put back together again in combinations your body actually uses which significantly increases your metabolism.  A higher protein breakfast can boost your metabolic rate up to 30% for as long as 12 hours. 

High efficiency whey protein is a fast and easy breakfast that provides a low-calorie metabolic boost (Daily Protein Plus).  Never supplement with soy protein drinks.  They slow down metabolism due to soy’s anti-thyroid properties.

When leptin levels elevate in your blood, which happens when you are overweight, then a chain of events are set in motion that directly increase the risk of heart disease.  The research showed that high levels of leptin resulted in decreased nitric oxide that is required to relax your arteries and enable good blood flow.  At the same time, there was a significant increase in free radical damage due to excess leptin stimulating the production of too much superoxide, in turn reacting with nitric oxide and creating peroxynitrite, a very toxic molecule that disrupts DNA and damages endothelial cells in your circulatory system.

This new study proves conclusively that leptin problems all by themselves, independent of any other cardiovascular health risk issue, have a direct adverse effect on your cardiovascular system that increases the risk for heart disease.  This supports and confirms the earlier research on this topic that I fully cover in The Leptin Diet.

Your abdominal fat secretes inflammatory messengers (IL-6 and TNFa), which in turn cause your liver to ramp up its production of CRP.  Such inflammation wreaks havoc in your body and speeds the aging process resulting in premature death.  The new study proves that the more abdominal fat you have the greater your risk of premature death.

Men with waistlines of 47 inches and women with waistlines of 39 inches had almost double the risk of premature death compared to those with the smallest waistlines (31.5 inches or less for men and 25.6 inches or less for women).  For every 2 inches your waistline increases from these lowest scores your risk of premature death goes up 17%.

The study results also noted that the lowest risk of death was associated with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 25.3 in men and 24.3 in women.  You can now buy an inexpensive scale at any larger store that will show your BMI as well, if you are interested.

I should point out that stress creates “brain pain” to a greater or lesser degree.  Of course, a quick fix is a pleasure burst of dopamine.  Just about everyone knows you can get such a pleasure burst from eating almost anything.  Stress eating is rooted too much brain pain and the consequent addiction to get a food fix to solve the feelings.  This problem would be far worse if a person has a genetic issue and is not able to make dopamine at the proper rate in the first place.

The nutrient tyrosine, which is in Thyroid Helper, helps to make dopamine in the first place.  Nutrients in Stress Helper assist your nerves to better manage stress, helping to reduce the urge in the first place.

Children and teenagers consume large amounts of high fructose corn syrup in many beverages, as do many adults.  There is no question this is a major factor in the onset of obesity and diabetes in America.  There is also no question that a massive health expenses will result along with a generation that will be plagued by diabetes and heart disease at early ages. 

The American Medical Association doesn’t have the guts to make a position statement on the subject.  The FDA, little more than a gatekeeper of profits in the food and drug world, won’t act because it would cost a lot of junk food makers a lot of money. 

When high fructose corn syrup is combined with a branded flavor (a cocktail of neurostimulants that the FDA also allows), then addiction to the brand flavor is created which causes further over consumption of high fructose corn syrup.  Unfortunately, such addictions are as difficult to break or more difficult to break than addictions to alcohol and many drugs.

The more branded flavors you can eliminate from your diet the healthier you are likely to be.  Replace them with meals cooked from scratch and flavors from spices and herbs.  The more time families learn to cook together and enjoy the flavor of wholesome food the healthier they will be – for many years to come.  If you are stuck needing a convenient meal, find one free of branded flavors and high fructose corn syrup.

As you being to gain weight your body begins to look for various places to store extra fat, because your white adipose tissue is being strained and inflamed too much.  The goal of your body is to find some place to put the extra fat so that it doesn’t clog arteries and organs and make them not work.  Our bodies have two or more backup systems for almost every issue.

In this case, your body will start storing extra fat in liver cells.  This is called simple fatty liver or steatosis.  It is invariably happening as your waistline expands.  This is actually a natural system for helping your body deal with calorie abuse, and in and of itself is not harmful per se.  As you lose weight you will deplete the extra fat in your liver as this back up system is no longer needed.

As your waistline continues to expand then your liver’s back up storage system is progressively overwhelmed with too much fat.  This starts occurring at the point your waistline is more than half your height in inches.  The larger your waist, the greater the risk for problems.  This sets in motion a cascade of problems, marked by inflammation and free radical damage, leading to a problem called NASH (nonalcoholic steatohepatitis).  NASH means that liver cells are being damaged, losing functional capacity, and scar tissue is forming.  If NASH progresses it can eventually become cirrhosis, meaning advanced scarring and severe liver damage.

In the current study, the antioxidant NAC did not block the storage of fat, nor would it be expected to.  However, it proved quite effective at helping to reduce free radical damage and inflammation within the liver, directly reducing the stress factors characteristic of NASH.  This study signifies that any person who is overweight has a much higher need for antioxidants so as to protect their liver.  Of course, the same antioxidants that protect your liver also protect your brain (liver and brain are the two natural fattiest organs in your body).

While the current study was only looking at NAC, it is well established science that many nutrients work synergistically with NAC to boost glutathione in cells, thereby providing protection.  In the case of your liver, fat-soluble antioxidants are going to be the most important.  These include tocotrienol E, R-Alpha lipoic acid, vitamin K, Q10, and the herb Silymarin (milk thistle).

Following the Leptin Diet and regular exercise will of course reduce fatty accumulation in your liver.  Nutrients such as pantethine and acetyl-l-carnitine are known to help metabolize stuck fat out of your liver, besides being great brain support nutrition.

Many people lose weight simply by cleaning up the junk in their diets and cutting back a bit.  As weight problems get more locked into place then stricter dieting approaches are typically employed.  Those who restrict too much too fast, even though they may drop weight quickly for a time, are inducing low-leptin “hibernation” metabolism, as described in my book The Leptin Diet.  This new study shows that this hibernation mode can persist for quite a while after weight has been lost – meaning it will be quite easy to gain weight back if you simply get off track for a few days.

By following the Leptin Diet you can reduce the chance of metabolic slow down while you are losing weight.  If you exercise consistently at your new weight you will ensure that “hibernation” metabolism is much less likely to be an issue.  Doing it right will help you keep the weight off over the long haul.

One of the great values of the Leptin Diet is that it is a lifestyle of eating that you can easily follow for the rest of your life – and it works!

Women who were overweight at the start of pregnancy were found to have a higher baseline level of hostile flora.  And those women with the worst gut flora profiles gained the most weight during pregnancy.

It is likely that an imbalanced digestive tract is present in virtually any person who is overweight and having trouble losing weight.  Taking friendly flora or taking other steps to improve digestion may be vital to promoting normal metabolism of calories. 

This also provides further information on how obesity risk may be passed from mother to child.  The first colonization of flora is from mother to child.  If mom is not balanced, then one’s child is at higher risks for problems thereafter.  Back in March I pointed out a related study that showed children lacking good digestive bacteria at birth were much more likely to become overweight by age 7 compared to children with healthy levels of friendly digestive bacteria.

For the first time a clear gene-related link explains how obesity causes colon cancer.  Adiponectin, like leptin, is a hormone signal that comes from fat cells.  It maintains normal levels when leptin is working properly.  When leptin levels elevate during obesity (leptin resistance) then adiponectin levels improperly drop.  This leads directly to insulin resistance and Type II diabetes.  Some individuals have a gene alteration that enables higher than normal production of adiponectin, which also confers significant protection against colon cancer.  The research, published in JAMA, showed that low adiponectin significantly elevated colon cancer risk.  Earlier research has also pointed to low adiponectin as a factor in various cancers, especially breast cancer.

Other research shows that during digestive inflammation a gene called P-Cadherin malfunctions, leading to the spreading of inflamed digestive tissue and setting the stage for colon cancer.  The malfunctioning gene was suffering from hypomythelation, meaning it lacked methyl donors.  Key methyl donors are folic acid and B12.  Low folic acid is clearly linked to colon cancer, and this new data explains how a lack of folate results in the spreading of unhealthy inflamed tissue in the digestive tract, increasing the risk for colon cancer.  Probiotics, which help lower digestive inflammation, have also been shown to be protective.  It should also be pointed out that the methyl donor properties of B vitamins are vital for weight loss and healthy metabolism.

We also know that a lack of calcium or vitamin D handicaps gene signals that would cause colon cancer cells to die.  And, interestingly, adequate calcium and vitamin D also support healthy metabolism of calories.

Collectively, these studies mean that a person with a history of digestive problems who is also overweight has multiple factors of colon cancer risk.  Since cancer would take 10-15 years to form as a result of these stressors.  That gives many people ample warning and time to take action.  Colon cancer is the second deadliest form of cancer (behind lung cancer) and only ½ the people treated survive.  Many natural strategies help both digestion and weight issues at the same time.

Over the past few years there has been an emerging body of information clearly linking viral infections and obesity.  Earlier research has found that low grade viral infections can reside within white adipose tissue, seemingly as a preferred hiding place to escape immune system detection.  Immune cells within white adipose tissue, already inflamed from the person being overweight, are apparently too inefficient to mount a proper immune response.  The viral infection goes on to attack fat cells within your stored fat, damaging their metabolism so that fat cannot be released.  It is unknown what percentages of individuals with stubborn weight issues are suffering this problem, but it is certainly a factor for some.

The new research adds a very interesting angle to the emerging science, as it suggests that the viral infections are damaging fat cells on purpose to liberate fatty acids and use them for their replication.  The data further suggests that viral infections, especially those that are chronic or low grade in nature, are successfully residing within stored fat as a friendly environment.  Existing data also suggests that a person who is already overweight would be more susceptible to viral infection of their white adipose tissue, and that once infected weight loss could become quite difficult.  This would set up a nasty catch 22 of progressive obesity and chronic fatigue with poor muscle function.  Such viral infections would make it very difficult to regain muscle fitness, further compounding the weight loss issue.  Furthermore, viral infections make a lot of lactic acid, and could therefore be a cause of fibromyalgia for some people.

In the current research scientists used the cytomegalovirus, a common human virus that infects many people.  They also tested the flu virus with similar findings.  Those most at risk for this problem would typically have a history of at least one bad viral infection (like mono or a really bad flu).  Following that, such a person would notice that their energy was never quite the same.  Other symptoms would include waking up with soar throats, muscle calf aches too often, fatigue that does not resolve easily, lack of muscle response to exercise, feeling worse after exercise – even flu-like, and suffering from bouts of “exploding fatigue” that have very intense onset (which is what a viral flare up feels like).  Certainly such symptoms would ebb and flow in intensity, and those with more intense symptoms more often would have the greater degree of viral issue.  Such an individual would also be more likely to catch bugs that are going around.

Thus, if you have some degree of these symptoms and you are struggling with weight, then you may need to include anti-viral strategies as part of your strategy to lose weight.  It is very plausible that by knocking down the viral load and acting fast to prevent a viral flare up and preventing catching any new viral bug, you can go a long way to improving your metabolism.  This data also suggests that individuals with normal body fat would be more resistant to viral infections in the first place.

There are currently no lab tests that detect viral activity in your white adipose tissue.  However, this theory is not very hard for anyone to test out.  You could try taking nutrients with natural anti-viral activity that are fatty in nature, such as monolaurin and/or oregano oil.  There are quite a few potential options, including first milk colostrum, lactoferrin, olive leaf extract, and many others.

In the simple case you would notice your energy improving and weight being lost by adding this type of nutrition into your plan.  Regardless, if you are overweight you do not want to get any bad viral infection as it may make matters much worse.  Minimally, have basic immune support as part of your natural program in the winter months and have extra support on hand for times of need.  Staying fit and following the Leptin Diet will also go a long way towards helping natural immunity.