Curtis Ludlow: Hi, this is Curtis Ludlow and welcome to this Boot Camp FX special event.  Today, Dr. Barry Sears, the New York Times best selling author and creator of the Zone Diet has taken the time to sit down and talk about his new book Toxic Fat.
 

In it he says that obesity is a form of cancer and is triggered by something called "silent inflammation."  It's a great book and a real eye opener.  Dr. Sears, thank you for taking the time to sit down and be on the call with us today.

Dr. Barry Sears: It's my pleasure.

Curtis Ludlow: I have a lot of questions for you and our time is limited, so let's just get right into it.  First of all, what is Toxic Fat?

Dr. Barry Sears: Well, Toxic Fat is actually a natural fatty acid the body makes, but if it makes too much of it, it has toxic consequences.  And why?  Because it increases inflammation and inflammation really is a driving cause for obesity, the development of chronic disease and the ageing process.

Curtis Ludlow: Okay.  And in your book you mentioned something called silent inflammation, what is that?

Dr. Barry Sears: Well, there are two types of inflammation.  We have the type that hurts, that's why we go see a doctor, but we now know there is a second type of inflammation that's now below the perception of pain.  And because there is no pain, you do nothing to stop this type of inflammation.  This type of inflammation can go on for years if not decades, attacking your heart, your immune system or your brain until there is enough in-organ damage, we call it a heart disease, cancer or Alzheimer's.

Curtis Ludlow: Okay and what are some of the symptoms of having toxic fat in your bloodstream and how would you know that you have toxic fat?

Dr. Barry Sears: Well, you wouldn't know it unless basically you had a blood test.  Just like you wouldn't know your cholesterol levels unless you had a blood test.  Well, there are blood tests that exist, but they are basically used primarily in research operations.  So, are there any subjective parameters that would indicate you have high levels of toxic fat in your bloodstream?  There is no one particular one, but I will give you some examples if you can answer yes to more than three of these questions, then you probably have high levels of toxic fat in your bloodstream.

1) Are you over weight?  Well there is two-thirds of Americans right there.  2) Are you taking cholesterol lowering drugs like statins?  Are you groggy upon awakening?  Are you constantly craving carbohydrates?  Are you really hungry two hours after an evening meal?  Are your fingernails brittle?  Now these seem like pigeon entrails, but they will give you an indication if you answer yes to more than three of these, that you probably have high levels of toxic fat and no blood test is required.

Curtis Ludlow: Okay.  Now you also mentioned Vioxx in your book, you said it relieved pain without side effects other than heart attacks and...?

Dr. Barry Sears: It is a small print.  We were told that Vioxx would be a pain reliever that had no side effects.  Well, it turn out it wasn't quite that way because what all antiinflammatory drugs do is they work on decreasing the production of bad eicosanoids, these are the hormones that cause pain.  But in the process, they knockout the production of good ones, these are the ones that cause cellular rejuvenation.

And so that's what happened with Vioxx.  Yes, it stopped the pain, but it also stopped those other hormones. which are basically important in cellular rejuvenation and that's why there is an increase in heart attacks.  Now that being said, is there any other way to reduce these fatty acids?  Well, yes, your diet.  So drugs go what I call downstream and diet goes upstream.  It's far more elegant and far more sophisticated, but basically we are using food now as if it were a drug.

Curtis Ludlow: So, will that be the case when you use - you said that taking fish oils would dilute the toxic fat?

Dr. Barry Sears: Exactly.  What you are looking for is a multifactorial approach that it's your diet that really reduces the production of toxic fat in the body.  And what's happened in the last 30 years, there has been a tremendous increase in this due to what I call the "perfect nutritional storm" and there was no one boogieman, but there was basically a number of factors that came together first in America and now are being exported world wide.

The first factor was an increase in consumption of grains and starches, refined carbohydrates.  I think it's like obviously junk food, but also things like pizza, pasta and bagels.  Now that by itself will raise the hormone insulin, which is not sufficient by itself, but at the same time. there was a tremendous increase of cheap vegetable oils, rich in what are called Omega-6 fatty acids.  These are things such as corn oil, soybean oil, safflower oil, sun flower oil which are now ubiquitous.

Now when you mix a large amounts of Omega-6 fatty acids with increased production of insulin, now you get an increased amount of toxic fat and that now its now driving our whole inflammatory process that's resulting in terms of obesity and all the conditions associated with obesity.

Curtis Ludlow: Really?  Okay.  Now, what is the fat trap?  I'm trying to get a grasp of that.

Dr. Barry Sears: Most people think if we are obese -- if a person is over weight, they must be a sloth or a glutton, they simply don't have will power.  It turns out nothing is further from the truth.  What people who develop obesity have is what I call a fat trap.  That means they are genetically predisposed, a predispose that until basically their diet causes that activation on their genes, they won't gain weight.  But what has happened for Americans, in the last 30 years, that those genetic expressions are now being exposed by this increase in toxic fat.

And what happens is, yes the food goes in the mouth, no question about that, but it gets trapped in your fat cells.  It can't get out.  And that food that can't get out is really high octane fuel that is needed to be making into chemical energy to drive the body.  So, you get this paradoxical situation.  The over weight person is constantly hungry, not because they are basically weaker will power, they are literally starving to death.  And as a consequence, they have only two options, to eat more calories and hope some of the calories escape the fat trap and made into chemical energy or they slow down their physical activity to conserve what levels of chemical energy they have.  So they become a sloth or a glutton, but that's not the cause of obesity, that's the consequence of the fat trap being activated.  So the bottom-line is, if you are fat it's not your fault.

Curtis Ludlow: So people with a fat trap, is that where you are saying that insulin, it doesn't - I'm confused about the insulin response.

Dr. Barry Sears: Well again, it's high levels of insulin that activate that fat trap, but there is two things that can increase insulin, obviously eating lots of refined carbohydrates.  But the other thing that increases insulin and keeps it high all the time is called insulin resistance.  That's when your other cells throughout your body become resistant to the action and therefore insulin levels begin to pile up in the bloodstream.

Now what causes insulin resistance?  It's toxic fat.  So again as you are building up toxic fat, you get this downward circle of where basically the levels of insulin in the blood are building up all the time and as a consequence the inflammation is building up and you keep the cycle going downward.

Curtis Ludlow: Okay, so what would you recommend for somebody who is obese and they are dieting, they are exercising, and they are just not losing any of the fat?

Dr. Barry Sears: Well, let's take the example of the world's heaviest man is one of my patients.  And this is Manuel Uribe who weighed 1230 pounds when we first started.  Now obviously he has a very large fat trap.  So what he has to do first is to reduce insulin.  Well you do that by following the Zone Diet and that's pretty straightforward.  Basically, you are looking to keep insulin levels in a very tight control.  And how do you do it?  Basically, all you do is use your hand and your eye.  At each meal, divide your plate into three equal sections.  On one-third of the plate you put some low fat protein, no bigger or thicker than the palm of your hand and the other two-thirds of your plate, you fill it with colorful carbohydrates; what are those?  Fruits and vegetables.  And that lowers insulin.

But the second thing, you also have to lower inflammation.  That's why you need the high dose fish oil.  So, by lowering the insulin and to lower the inflammation at the same time, you now basically relieve and relax that fat trap.  And as a consequence, for the first time, Manuel started losing weight.  Now to date or about 2.5 years, he has lost about 440 pounds.  Now obviously he is still super obese at nearly 800 pounds, but he is probably the healthiest man in all of Mexico.  His blood cholesterol is perfect, his blood sugar is perfect, his blood pressure is that of a teenager and his resting heart rate is that of a trained athlete even though he hasn't left his bed in seven years.

Curtis Ludlow: Wow, that's amazing.  So for people out there who struggle with eating the Zone Diet perfectly, it was like the way you just described, the lean protein, the vegetables and fruits on the other two-thirds of the plate.  Like practical every day, how do you recommend that somebody could like follow this every single day?

Dr. Barry Sears: Well, again, you just have to be aware of what you are eating, but most people are - more people are more likely to change their religion than they change their diet.  And that's a reality.  So say okay if I can't do that, what can I do?  Then I can give you 15 seconds a day.  Well, the one thing you do in 15 seconds is take as much fish oil as you can to reduce the inflammation.  Now that's not effective as fine as Zone Diet which will reduce toxic fat, but what the fish oil does it dilutes out the toxic fat.  And therefore reduces the inflammation that it otherwise might cause.  So if you have only 15 seconds a day and you want to live longer and live better, take your fish oil and lots of it.

Curtis Ludlow: Okay, for the weight loss part, I know the Zone Diet isn't really negative sometime, you can tell me, but it seems to me that the Zone Diet is more in harmony with getting your hormones in balance and not necessarily for reducing weight?

Dr. Barry Sears: Exactly and basically the Zone Diet was developed for treating heart disease and diabetes.  Two diseases which we know are basically driven by inflammation, but we also know that inflammation drives obesity.  So, basically the Zone Diet developed for basically controlling hormones, especially inflammatory hormones, it also has a side effect of basically allowing to lose weight simply by bringing those hormones back into tighter control.  And that's the real key about understanding the power of diet.  Diet, the food we eat, affects our hormones for better or worse, it means the door swings both ways.  If you eat the right combination of protein, carbohydrate and fat, your hormones are going to be kept in that zone and life is pretty good.  If you eat the wrong combination, as more and more Americans are doing, those hormones get out of that zone and basically now you are under constant inflammatory attack.

Curtis Ludlow: So, if somebody was to continue with their normal eating patterns, which may not be in line with the Zone Diet and they took the fish oil, with they still have the potential to lose the fat or...?

Dr. Barry Sears: They actually do and that's the deal.  The fact is that when you take large amounts of fish oil, you actually start to lose fat.  Ironic as it might seem, it takes fat to burn fat and as long as that fat are the long chain Omega-3 fatty acids in the fish oil, because they begin to activate other parts of our genes that basically form the enzymes that actually burn fat.  And they have another aspect, that there are certain hormones in the brain derived from toxic fat that cause us to be hungry all the time.  These are called endocannabinoids.

Now these were first discovered in the 1960s when people started smoking marijuana and what is the most common side effect of smoking marijuana?  You would get the munchies.  You will be eating anything in sight.  And so they discovered that basically, there were actually hormones in the brain that looks similar or had similar effects of marijuana, but these are natural hormones and now we know they are derived from toxic fat.  So by taking enough fish oil, you are also reducing their levels in the brain, so you aren't as hungry.  And if you are as hungry, cutting back on calories is a lot easier.

Curtis Ludlow: Right.  Now personally, I've recommended flaxseed oil just for the health benefits I've seen and read about, will that do the same thing for you as the fish oils?

Dr. Barry Sears: Not really.  Flaxseed oil contains what are called short chain Omega-3 fatty acids.  They are Omega-3 fatty acids, but they have no antiinflammatory actions until they are metabolized into the longer chain Omega-3 fatty acids you find in fish oils.  And unfortunately, in humans that's a very slow and inefficient process.  So, you have to consume about 50 times the volume of flaxseed oil to get the same anti-inflammatory benefits of a much smaller volume and smaller caloric load of fish oil.

Curtis Ludlow: Okay.  Now for people who want to do some thing today, they want to like take some action and avoid the toxic fat and improve their bodies.  What's one thing you recommend to everybody to go out and do right now?

Dr. Barry Sears: Well, the one thing I recommend everybody to do is just kind of try to change your diet to exactly the way your grandmother told you to eat two generations ago.  She told you four things.  You eat small meals throughout the day.  You have some protein in every meal.  You always eat your vegetables.  And the last thing she told you?  Take your fish oil.  At that time, it was cod liver oil, which is the world's most disgusting oil, but basically she was giving cutting edge information of how to control genetic expression. 

So if you are over weight and you are saying, how can I do this all, eat less and exercise more.  If you have an active fat trap, that's not going to work because by eating less, you have less energy, you will be starving all the time.  By exercising more, you are using up all the chemical energy, you will be starving all the time.  And what happens that you start basically cannibalizing your own body, your own muscles and your own tissues, so this is not a good way to go through.

So you have to go to understanding the underlying aspects of what causes obesity and that is simply I've got to change my hormones, I've got to reduce the hormones that basically increase inflammation.  And if I do that, I've got the keys to the kingdom not only to lose weight, but now to live a longer and better life.

Curtis Ludlow: Okay and what about water?  We read everywhere that drinking eight glasses of water a day is one of the most important things you can do, it is everywhere.  Well, what role does water play in this process?

Dr. Barry Sears: Well water is basically the cheapest nutrient known to man and nobody drinks enough of it.  Yeah, you should drink about eight glasses a day, but here is a better rule.  Take your weight and divide it by two and that is the number of ounces of water you should drink everyday.  That's a lot of water.  Now, why do you have to drink a lot of water?  Because your cells are about 65% water and if they are not hydrated, they won't be very efficient in making this chemical energy called ATP that drives our body.  And if they are not very efficient in making ATP and we are not making enough of that chemical, what do we have to do to make enough of it?  We have to eat more.  So, that's why basically being adequately hydrated is one of the best ways not to be constantly hungry because you are making enough of the chemical energy, so the body can do what it has to do.

Curtis Ludlow: Okay.  Well that's about all the time we have for today Dr. Sears.  Any last words for the listeners?

Dr. Barry Sears: Well, I think that if they are frustrated by the fact of their constant gain and frustrated trying to understand why if they are eating less and exercising more they are not losing weight, that they should basically read the book Toxic Fat, because again virtually everything Americans have been told about our obesity crisis and how to resolve it, turns out to be virtually dead wrong.

And again, if they'd like to go to my website toxicfatthebook.com, this will give you some more details of it and hopefully, it will encourage you to buy the book and if you do, it will give you the opportunity to say, here is our pathway, a dietary pathway to basically retake control of my genes.  And that's a very empowering statement.

Curtis Ludlow: Right.  Well, everyone, Toxic Fat, go get it.  This is a great book, it's really interesting and I highly recommend it to everyone.  Go out and get your copy of Toxic Fat today.  Dr. Sears, thank you for taking the time to share this information with us and please come back again.

Dr. Barry Sears: Well, thank you for the opportunity.

Curtis Ludlow: Thank you.

Dr. Barry Sears: Bye-bye now.

Curtis Ludlow: Okay, bye-bye.