A common misconception regarding improving body composition is the idea that sweating is requirement to burn fat.  Similar to another well-entrenched oversimplified misnomer, namely that we get fat because we eat too much fat, I can tell you in both cases it is exactly the opposite premise where the truth of efficient fat loss can be found.

Regarding the; eating fat equals getting fat fallacy, evidence to the contrary is abundant. Americans have followed the low fat diet approach for the last thirty years only to see obesity rates skyrocket. Similarly misconstrued I see people drenched in sweat somehow thinking that it is fat melting away and precipitating out of their pores.

In order to better understand where I am going with this, why not grab yourself a nice refreshing glass of ice water while I illustrate the cold hard facts of fat loss…  which ironically explains with why we shiver when cold. The body typically operates at a comfortable 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. When we exercise, our body heats up from all the combustion of ATP that activates our muscles (FYI: we don’t burn calories, we burn ATP, but that is another oversimplification and fodder for another bog), that in turn increases our core temperature and thus we commence to perspire (sweat) as a mechanism to cool off and lower our core temperature from the outside in by layering our skin with perspiration to cool and wick away the heat. 

What is true… when you sweat you do lose water weight. Case and point water weight loss is temporary, I have trained countless athletes over my career who compete in weight categories and one of the most common tricks to make weight and show up many pounds heavier for the event is to sweat out some water weight by sitting in a sauna immediately before the official weigh in. The dehydrated and “lighter” athlete as a result of excessive sweating then jumps on a scale, presumably makes weight and then immediately commences to re-hydrate and hopefully become bigger, stronger and heavier than the opponent.  (Again making weight without sacrificing power and stamina is an art and a topic for another blog)

The reality is that water “weight-loss” from sweat is only a temporary depletion that will quickly be regained at the ingestion of food or drink.

However, if you want to burn fat – then staying cold is far more effective method. As mentioned, the body likes to operate at 98.6 degrees and does whatever it needs to do to maintain that constant temperature. We know that the body will shed water (sweat) to cool the outer layer of our skin to bring down the temperature when it is threatened by overheating, conversely when it is cold the body will begin to shiver. Our bodies are layered with fat to insulate the body from the cold as are other mammals and shivering is a noticeable reaction when our core temperature dips to low and the body perceives a threat.Our muscles takie action, firing and relaxing or what feels like jiggling to increase our core temperature to create enough heat to increase our body temperature to ward off the dangers of hypothermia.  Stored fat is a primary fuel source to stoke the muscles into shivering action.

So, If you want to trick your body into burn a little extra fat, then go for a swim in cold water, take an ice bath after a good workout (which also reduces inflammation) and drink icy cold water throughout the day. Your body has to increase its metabolic output in order to increase body temperature to compensate for the cold and accessing stored fat to do so is a preferred fuel source of choice.

To be clear, sweating is not even a form of exercise; you can do it while sitting in a sauna or under the sun – shivering on the other hand is a form of muscle activation.  Additional tips to access stored fat, center your meals around protein, consume essential omega 3 fatty acid and fiber while minimizing the consumption of non essential foods like grains and other processed carbohydrate that are a primary cause fat storage… train hard but in short duration (an hour or less), drink ice cold water and stay cool (literally and figuratively).

You could say that burning stored fat is no sweat at all.

© 2013 – Copyrights Grant Roberts, All Rights Reserved

The Dairy Industry will do just about anything to sell more milk, include asking the FDA if it can hide questionable ingredients from consumers.

Milk contains pus and blood from irritated udders from over milking but you won’t find that listed in the ingredients nor will you find levels of growth hormones, RGHB and antibiotics that increase yield and are detectible so the Dairy Industry is asking the FDA why should they tell consumers if they sweeten flavored milk with aspartame.

Flavored milk consumption is down since the public became aware of the heaps of sugar and high fructose corn syrup added to milk to entice children to consume milk that is of course on top of the naturally occurring and problematic sugar called lactose found in milk.

The dairy industry spends millions trying to convince consumers that milk is somehow healthy and natural part of a human diet – which is odd considering no other mammal consumes milk from another species and man existed in vibrant health with much stronger and healthier bones for thousands and thousands of years before dairy farming commenced.

Part of the decline in milk consumption is that consumers are finally becoming wise to the marketing efforts of dairy producers and opting for healthier options such as almond milk fortified with more calcium and vitamin D than milk and no lactose.

To be clear, the Dairy Industry does not need to ask permission to add potentially carcinogenic aspartame to milk, despite public outcry aspartame is an FDA approved additive, what Big Dairy is asking for is permission not to list aspartame anywhere on the ingredients or front of label packaging.

The dairy lobby argues that aspartame in milk would make it a healthier product and reduce childhood obesity by offering milk with fewer calories.

Which begs the question if that were true… why hide it?

Could it be because aspartame is by far the most adverse side-effect ingredient reported to the FDA since 1981 when Donald Rumsfeld the formed Secretary of Defense used his political clout to push through aspartame for which he earned personally earned ten million dollars in defiance of scientific concerns for public well being.

The FDA lists 92 symptomatic complaints directly related to aspartame consumption; from headaches, dizziness to unconsciousness and coma, shortness of breath, seizures, shock, macular and neural degeneration, blood disorders… the list goes on and on. The one indisputable fact I find most troubling and why aspartame should not be consumed is the toxic embalming potential of aspartame that converts to formaldehyde and damages DNA when aspartame reaches only 86 degrees Fahrenheit (12 degrees lower than average body temperature).

According to Dr. Blaylock, formaldehyde accumulates near DNA and causes serious damage. “Drinking even one diet cola a day can cause formaldehyde buildup in cells, so that the amount of the toxin increases daily,” he writes in Health and Nutrition Secrets.

In short, I am not a proponent of dairy products with the exception of live active culture full fat yogurt, otherwise I generally avoid dairy products and I never knowingly consume anything containing aspartame… and that is my point. If the dairy industry wants to promote sweetened and flavored milk drinks containing aspartame – don’t hide it.

You might think the dairy producers would be more concerned about deceiving the public when just last year beef producers felt the public wrath when the USDA allowed them to hide lean finely textured ammonia treated beef scraps aka “pink slime” from appearing on the label, as a result consumers rebelled and Beef Products Inc. was forced to close manufacturing plants.

I encourage you all to vote with your fork, or in this case glass. It is difficult for the public to fight deep-pocketed lobbying campaigns of Big Dairy or Big Food.

The SumOfUs poster featured above was a low budget campaign that adorned 15 Washington DC buses that would drive past FDA headquarters picturing a glass of chocolate milk and the phrase, “Got Aspartame in your kids’ milk?” – a parody of the long-standing ‘Got Milk?’ campaign.

“Hey FDA,” it continues. “If the dairy lobby gets it way, milk marketed to our kids will become more of an artificially-sweetened junk food. We don’t want that!”

“Sincerely, 112,372 people who signed a petition to the FDA on SumOfUs.org,” the poster concludes.

The decision is now in the hands of the FDA stay tuned to find out the results.

© 2013 – Copyrights Grant Roberts, All Rights Reserved

Yes, you are reading the title correctly; I just paid two thousand dollars in prizes for a ten-week body composition challenge where the winners lost less than ten pounds collectively. Yes, that’s right the prize money was split between two people, a male and a female who lost less than ten pounds between both of them collectively.

Does that sound absurd? At the end of ten weeks of dieting, exercise and lifestyle management the scale proved that the male champion lost a total of 8.1 pounds and the female winner lost a meager 1.1 pounds. If you are thinking those results don’t sound very impressive then you will be even further dismayed to discover that this was the third annual body composition challenge I have hosted with entrants measured in the hundreds… and this year represented the best results ever.

In fact I was so impressed I will soon be launching the competition internationally.   

Sound like easy money? If you wish you had entered the contest or think I must be a complete idiot for paying approximately $222.00 per pound lost in prize money… I should warn you, the Grant Roberts – New U Body Composition Challenge (powered by Unified Lifestyle) is was not a “weight-loss” challenge, it is a body composition challenge.

Anyone who reads my blogs or follows my missions knows I hate the term weight-loss even more than the disdain I have for the body mass index (BMI) as a gauge of obesity. The only permanent and proven method of “weight-loss” is best characterized by an unfortunate chainsaw accident. The truth is how much a person weighs is largely irrelevant…what matters is a person’s body composition.

Furthermore, shows like the Biggest Loser instill a ridiculous fixation on the scale and “weight” lost through over exercising and starvation is almost always water and muscle – not excess fat. Instead the New U Body Challenge focuses on improving body composition, and that can be done by either losing excess fat, gaining lean muscle mass or both.

The winners of this challenge are absolutely shining examples of body composition success. If this challenge had been judged by a scale or on network television the results on paper at least would have been considered pathetic. Let’s take a closer look at what really happened:

The male winner improved his overall body composition dramatically – based on body composition testing with a Bodivis state of the art medical quality bioelectrical impedance device, the male winner lost a total of 25.2 pounds of excess fat and gained an impressive 17.7 pounds of lean muscle mass – dramatically improving his body composition and metabolism yet if the scale was the judge he lost only 8.1 pounds?

The female winner had equally impressive results losing precisely 7.3 pounds of excess fat while gaining 6.2 pounds of metabolically enhancing lean muscle tissue and increased bone mass – yet on a scale would measure only 1.1 pounds of “weight” lost.

Obviously scale weight tells us very little about dramatic change and the New U Revolution body composition challenge is a game changer. If you would like learn more or encourage your gym to adopt the challenge – please request an information package or join the Abolish BMI mission at:  info@bodivis.com

© 2013 – Copyrights Grant Roberts, All Rights Reserved

If you don’t know – you may want to give yourself a good tongue-lashing.

The picture is a microscopic view of bacteria on the surface of a human tongue.

Doctors ask you to open wide and say Ahhhh for a reason. To the trained eye, the tongue can reveal a lot about your health. The color, texture, moisture and the bacterial coating on the tongue can indicate nutritional deficiencies, stress, anemia, dehydration and kidney problems to list just a few.

Chinese medicine goes even further relying heavily on the appearance of the tongue to diagnose health concerns from your brain to your bowels

The tongue is a hard working voluntary muscle layered with thousands of taste buds. A healthy tongue should be pink in color, somewhat moist, and smooth with no spots or bumps with clearly visible layers of taste buds that detect all five taste sensations – sweet, bitter, salty, sour, and savory.

Halitosis (bad breath) is generally a product of excess unhealthy bacteria accumulated on the tongue. Mouths are full of bacteria that is completely normal and potentially beneficial… but not all bacteria is good for your health. A moist warm tongue is the perfect breeding ground for bacteria.

A healthy tongue should have a thin transparent coating, if your tongue coating is:

• Yellow – you may have a bacterial or fungal infection.
• Furry / thick – you may have an infection, oral thrush (yeast) or be dehydrated.
• No coating – you may be experiencing digestive system issues.

Brushing your tongue or regularly scraping your tongue with a stainless steel tongue scraper or even a spoon can contribute to a healthier tongue improving your taste reception and the scent of your breath. Most bad breath originates from the back of your tongue where bacteria can thrive. So go ahead, give yourself a regular tongue scraping and enjoy your taste buds.  

© 2013 – Copyrights Grant Roberts, All Rights Reserved

If you have ever heard a self proclaimed fitness or nutrition expert say that the solution to body composition management is a simple matter of counting calories, extolling the virtues of the energy balance theory (consuming less calories than you burn to promote “weight” loss) – stop listening to them immediately.

If they take the fat loss fairytale a step further and dispense the mythical advice “if you want to lose one pound of fat just eat 3500 less calories”

Ask the following four questions:

1. What’s a calorie?

2. Why would my body decide to burn fat exclusively if I deprive it of energy (calories)?

3. So… are you saying it doesn’t matter what foods I eat – just as long as I am calorically deficient?

4. What about exercise… isn’t fat loss more effective with a well-designed fitness lifestyle program? 

Seriously, Google “eat 3500 calories less” and you will be shocked by the list of individuals and organizations that promote this insanely wrong concept.

It is time we all embrace the truth, fat is an essential part of human health and we must consume fat to live, thrive and survive.  Among the baseless nutritional experiments that continue to be conducted on mankind (man made trans fats, GMO’s, hormone and antibiotic overloaded meats and dairy etc. etc.) the worst is the oversimplified advice promoting a low fat diet.

There are six categories of nutrients we consume that not surprisingly are the same six ingredients we are composed of.  The energy bearing macronutrients (protein, fat and carbohydrates can be measured in either calories (energy) or grams (weight) – carbs should always be measured in both calories and grams since fiber which is only available in carbohydrate plant form provides no measurable energy to humans.)

If the human body came with an ingredient label, the nutrients that we are composed of would be listed in descending order (by weight):

Ingredient                     % of healthy human

Water                             50 – 70%

Protein                           25%

Fat                                  10-25% (men and women differ genetically)

Minerals                        4%          (significant source found in the bones)

*Carbohydrates            1-2%      (glycogen (sugar) is only stored in the muscle and    trace amounts in the liver)

Vitamins                        trace amounts

*Of the six nutritional ingredients all are essential with the exception of carbohydrates that are non-essential. Carbohydrates; provide a source of energy only and nothing essential the body requires to maintain health. It is noteworthy that fiber a non-essential food source found only in carbohydrate plant based sources is beneficial to health.

The word essential… as it pertains to nutrition means, not that it’s recommended, or that it might be good for you… essential means that the nutrient is a vital component to human health and can not be manufactured by the body therefore must be delivered daily in optimum amounts to maintain health, anything less will result in a deficiency.

To determine exactly how much of the essential nutrients we must deliver daily to live thrive and survive we must first know our total lean body mass.  A body composition test generally divides the body into fat and lean mass.

If you want to improve your body composition (body fat percentage) there are three ways to do so:

You can lose excess fat

You can gain muscle 

Or both – but that is very difficult to do.

Healthy body fat percentages differ between men and women:

                               Vital*             Underfat             Athletic             Healthy             Overfat             Obese

Men                    < 4%                  4.1 – 7.9%           8 – 12%              12.1 – 19.9%      20 – 25.9%        26% +

Women              < 8-10%           10.1 – 13.9%        14 -18%             18.1 – 25.9%      26 – 31.9%         32% +

In my next blog I will explain why the popular energy balance theory is a baseless method to manage body composition.

© 2013 – Copyrights Grant Roberts, All Rights Reserved

Karl Marx was credited to say: “History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, second as a farce”.  Well clear a path for the buffoons at North Andover Massachusetts who call themselves educators.

Ironically just a little more than 300 years ago Andover Mass. was busy playing judge, jury and executioner in the infamous Witch Hunt Trials. Today, it is the schools in North Andover Mass that are making judgments against students with just as much vigor and lack of scientific evidence as in the late 1600’s.

Today, schools in North Andover are on a different kind of “Which Hunt” – specifically, making wild unscientific accusations about “which” kid is fat.

School officials say they are “ just trying to help students fight obesity” by sending children home with a letter. Surprisingly they chose to send children home with an actual letter, and not a Puritan scarlet letter F for FAT stitched onto their clothing.

Obesity is of course a pandemic reality, but here’s the problem. School officials are speculating “which” kid is fat based on the antiquated system known as the Body Mass Index. Body Mass Index or BMI is almost as old as the Witch Trials themselves, the BMI formula was conceived in 1835 by a Belgian mathematician named Adolphe Quetelet. The formula was simply a speculative collection of data from observations specific to very unique population of 1835 Belgian society – soldiers. Yes, BMI was extrapolated by considering data exclusively comprised of young healthy male soldiers in the year 1835 when obesity was certainly not an epidemic or even remotely prevalent, for that matter. Obesity wasn’t even a consideration of Professor Quetelet and his BMI equation was certainly never intended to measure the elderly, women or children in any capacity let alone body composition.

inexplicably the international medical community has ubiquitously adopted BMI a gauge of obesity?

Yet BMI doesn’t measure fat.

If there is anywhere in this story where witchcraft is needed it’s here, BMI somehow magically has been interpreted to suggest that if you are X tall, then you should weigh Y, regardless whether you are a man, women or child… athlete, aged or de-conditioned?

Unfortunately, the epidemic of obesity is not an illusion it is a real problem in America and growing worldwide.

If the definition of obesity is the accumulation of excess fat to the extent that individuals health is jeopardized, then why isn’t fat or more accurately our body fat percentage exactly what we are measuring?

Are we to assume that America, the self proclaimed, most advanced nation in the world is incapable of measuring human body composition in the year 2013?

The sad truth is BMI misdiagnoses 48% of women and 25% of men, does that sound like science?

It gets worse; all of the statistics that report the Nations current obesity estimates and the projection that 44% of the Nation will be obese by 2030 are actually grossly underestimated. Why? Because BMI does not account for overwhelming incidence of “skinny-fat” whereby a significant portion of the population erroneously fall under BMI’s “healthy weight” category. This describes individuals who are in fact clinically obese by body fat standards but they in turn have such limited amounts of lean body mass (muscle) BMI suggest they are somehow considered healthy because of total weight x height?

How much a person weighs is largely irrelevant – instead what a person’s body composition consists of is of paramount importance.  Virtually every professional athlete on the planet will fail a BMI test because muscle (lean body mass) is a dense tissue.  Obsessing over BMI or scale weight, which tells us nothing but the sum of our parts and focusing on BMI or scale weight does so much damage to the psyche it actually acts as a deterrent for people to actually improve body composition by going to the gym and lifting weights– because scale weight will go up despite that adding lean muscle mass is the greatest metabolic advancement to combat obesity.

There are only three ways for an obese person to achieve a healthy body fat percentage: 1 – Lose excess fat, 2- Increase lean muscle mass, 3 – both.

What is shocking is the number of charlatans and self-proclaimed experts in the health and fitness industry that rely on BMI and are obviously too stupid to know better and continue to regurgitate falsities and simplified solutions like its a simple matter of the calories in v calories used (the charlatans fail to recognize that the term calorie is just another non descriptive unit of measure like weight to which they illogically assume all foods must somehow be created equal), or the eat less and exercise more notion or the ridiculous idea that if you consume 3500 less calories over time you will somehow miraculously lose one pound of fat… and not an ounce of muscle?

TV Shows like the Biggest Loser that focus on scale weight, starvation and deprivation along with equally unimpressive TV personalities that play all knowing doctors operating thinly disguised infomercials only perpetuate the myths and misconceptions that impede the achievement of a healthy body fat composition.

Don’t believe me? Ask yourself this simple question: How come the Biggest Loser TV shows after all those seasons has never had a reunion show demonstrating the long term success of their unrealistic and impossible to maintain lifestyle ?

The truth is, the only permanent “weight-loss” solution comes as a result of a chainsaw mishap.  America doesn’t have a weight problem, America doesn’t have a height problem, America has a FAT problem and that is precisely what we need to measure. Everyone should know what a healthy body fat percentage is and how to achieve it.

The letters the North Andover School system are handing out are incredibly damaging and only ingrain the unhealthy mindset that actually deters student athletic pursuits and healthy eating rich in “essential” nutrients like omega 3 fatty acids.

Please join me in the 21^st century, it is time to abolish BMI and adopt body fat percentage as a reliable gauge of health. Highly accurate multi-signal bio-impedance devices are affordable and accurate, even waist circumference is a much better gauge than BMI to accurately diagnose serious conditions like metabolic syndrome (muffin top) that would identify the dangerous accumulation of excess fat around the midsection as precursor to obesity, diabetes and the symptoms of a toxic and failing liver resultant from the excess consumption of processed carbohydrates.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health says that parents can opt their child out of Body Mass Index screening – finally something intelligent that not only the students should opt out of but the entire Nation.

AbolishBMI.com coming soon – please stay tuned and sign the petition.

© 2013 – Copyrights Grant Roberts, All Rights Reserved

If you are experiencing persistent joint pain or soreness in your hands, knees, hips, neck or lower back you may have a form of arthritis.

There are more than 100 different types of arthritis, however the two most common forms of arthritis are Osteoarthritis; which occurs over time (wear and tear) or can be the result of an injury when the protective cartilage covering the end of the bone deteriorates.  The other prevalent form is Rheumatoid arthritis; an autoimmune disorder that attacks and destroys cartilage.

The common denominator is the deterioration of cartilage. There are two kinds of cartilage, meniscal cartilage that acts as a shock absorber and distributes the load, and articular cartilage that that provides a smooth gliding service for the bones, however unlike other tissues such as the dermis or bones that repair when you have a cut or a fracture, cartilage does not contain blood vessels and therefore is non-regenerative because cartilage cannot absorb nutrients.

Because inflammation is a symptom of arthritis, non-steroidal medicines such as ibuprofen or aspirin are commonly prescribed to manage the pain but like all medicines may cause negative side effects.

A number of natural alternatives exist such as: Glucosamine, Chondroitin, MSM, Devils Claw and Omega 3 fatty acids that have been shown to reduce arthritic pain and slow the progression of cartilage deterioration.

Despite wear and tear being a contributing factor of cartilage deterioration, you definitely want to remain active with low impact physical activities such as swimming, biking and weight lifting to name a few to increase circulation and strengthen the ligaments and tendons. Nutritionally you want to avoid inflammatory foods such as grains, dairy, sugar, processed foods and manmade trans fats.

This will leave plenty of room for healthy anti-inflammatory foods such as salmon, fiber rich vegetables, berries, olive oil, garlic, green tea and various spices like turmeric or curcumin.

Natural Supplement Solutions:

Concussions and the effects of head injuries are frequent topics in the news lately, which spawned the question:

How soon can you return to exercising after a concussion?

Well that depends.  What day is it? Do you know where you are? What’s your name? Can you spell it backwards?  These are all common questions asked to determine the severity of a concussion following impact to the head.

A concussion can occur when the soft tissue of the brain collides with the bone of the skull.  The initial questions are asked to assess the damage and are generally asked again a few minutes later. Disorientation, disruption of balance and lack of coordination are additional symptoms of a concussed brain.

The severity of the damage will generally dictate the length of the recovery process and how soon you can return to exercising. Concussions are generally categorized as either simple or complex.  Simple concussions typically have only short term effects while complex concussions can have lasting effects on memory and even result in unconsciousness or seizures.

It was commonly thought that rest was the best method to recover from a concussion and that exercise might make the symptoms worse of slow the recovery process– but that may not actually be true.  Returning to exercise may speed the recovery process, but this determination should be made by a qualified health professional.

If immediately following impact to the head you are unconscious, confused or have blurred vision – you should immediately stop your activity and get an assessment by a health professional – you should rest for 24 hours, supervised and get a second assessment. If you have a simple concussion you can likely return to exercising as soon as 24 hours after the incident if you are medically cleared to do so and of course you should proceed with caution.

To discern whether or not you can return to physical activity, your doctor may test to see if a rise in blood pressure aggravates or causes the return of your concussion symptoms. Your recovery time generally depends upon this assessment.

If you have a complex concussion you may experience persistent symptoms including head aches for two to three weeks.  If this is the case, you will want to rest, but don’t rest too long as this can be equally detrimental.  A recent study conducted by the University of Buffalo’s Concussion Management Clinic suggests that cardio vascular exercise performed on a equipment that does not involve a lot of impact or bouncing such as a stationary bike, elliptical or treadmill can speed the recovery process.  One of the lead researchers Dr. Leddy in an interview said “Physical rest beyond three weeks is detrimental” and I would have to concur with his analogy.

One of the most informative tests to determine the severity of the concussion and evaluate recovery is to see if the symptoms of a concussion are exacerbated when blood pressure rises, and of course blood pressure rises with exercise.

However in the tests at the University of Buffalo, supervised patients would exercise to 80% of maximum heart rate, which was the point where symptoms such as dizziness and headache increased. High performance athletes would be increased to 90% of heart rate maximum, yet post exercise the overall recovery of each group showed quickened compared to non exercise patients.

What I found interesting is the researchers chose the 80% of maximum heart rate completely arbitrarily.

Based on my own research I would speculate that the number to speed concussion recovery is likely closer to 70% of maximum heart rate.

Personally, I have been studying the effects of exercise and the brain for the last decade with my colleague Dr. John Ratey,  Harvard Medical School Professor and author of Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.

The reason I suggest 70% would be more effective is based on what I have observed with target heart rate and neurogenesis (the creation of new brain cells). Neurogenesis occurs when the brain is engorged in an oxygen and blood rich environment, which maximizes around 70%.  New brain cells strengthen the brain and potentially increase brain function, cognition and reduce the onset of degenerative disease such as Alzheimers ( aka Diabetes type 3).

Beyond 70% and certainly at 80-90%, oxygen is less abundant in the brain because of the demand for oxygen and blood to fuel the muscles and remove lactic acid.

Regardless of pace, what does seem clear in the study, getting your brain active following a concussion injury with exercise as soon as you are medically cleared to do so is better than a kick in the head.

© 2013 – Copyrights Grant Roberts, All Rights Reserved

I have started working on a new book that will focus on my belief that over simplification is a root cause of the obesity epidemic and misinformation.

One of the themes will be courtesy of one of my favorite scholars / philosophers William of Ockham who is credited with the precept known as Ockham’s Razor (aka Occam’s Razor), that basically means ALL things considered, the simplest solution tends to be the right one.

This does not mean the simplest solution is the right one!  - It means ALL hypothesis’s considered the most elegant and economic solution without overlooking any additional contributing factors is likely correct.

If you are at all curious why its called Ockhams razor – it’s because back in the day of writing on parchment erasers or whiteout had not yet been invented, so instead a razor blade was used to remove the dried ink from the surface of the paper.

I could create a very long list of things that are oversimplified or just plain wrong and I will do so in the book. However in the meantime here are a ten things to consider.

1. Every human being is on a diet… diet means food.

2. The human body does not burn calories (calories don’t actually exist they are a unit of measure), the human body runs on ATP and ATP can be created from all of the macro nutrient sources (Protein, Fat, Carbohydrate) once stored in the body.

3. If calories did exist (which they don’t) it would NOT be a simple matter of counting calories in versus calories out… anyone who says that is an idiot.  We use the term calorie to measure the energy value of a given nutrient if it was burned in a metal oven. Humans do not have cast iron stomachs – we have complicated digestive systems and different nutrients are not absorbed creating some fictitious source of energy (see #2 on the list, the body burns ATP not calories).

4. We are not fat because we are eating too much fat. Question: if you want to fatten any mammal what do you feed them? Answer: Low Fat Grains – if that wasn’t true wouldn’t they feed fat to livestock in the feedlots or force feed fat to geese to create fois gras? but they don’t – they fatten animals by feeding them low fat grains – (Hint Man in an animal)

5. Carbohydrates are non-essential so why does the government continue to suggest that consuming 65% of your food in the form of carbohydrates is somehow healthy? Are we to further believe that the unprecedented explosion in obesity and diabetes rates that have skyrocketed over the past thirty plus years, which just happen to align with the USDA’s low fat (circa 1980 and continuing to this day) recommendations are just a weird coincidence?

6. The term lean protein is redundant.

7. Atkins did not invent a revolutionary new diet – Charles Banting did in 1863.   (Get the free e-book here)

8. America doesn’t have a weight problem it has a fat problem. The scale alone cannot measure success.

9. BMI was never intended for women or children and does not measure obesity. It was invented in 1835 by a mathematician for non obese young men serving in the Belgian Army yet somehow BMI remains the erroneous method we use to gauge obesity in the Nation and around the world – misclassifying 48% of women and 26% of men.

10. Over the past 3.5 million plus years – no evidence of any kind exists to suggest any tribe ever successfully existed solely as vegetarians.

© 2013 – Copyrights Grant Roberts, All Rights Reserved