TOXIC FAT

Thomas Nelson

Contents

Introduction...............................................................................................viiChapter 1: The Real Epidemic Behind the Obesity Crisis.....................................................1Chapter 2: The Perfect Nutritional Storm...................................................................5Chapter 3: How Inflammation Helps Us-and Hurts Us..........................................................12Chapter 4: Why Getting Fat May Not Be Your Fault...........................................................26Chapter 5: Good Fat May Be Protective......................................................................49Chapter 6: Malignant Toxic Fat.............................................................................59Chapter 7: Do You Have Toxic Fat Syndrome?.................................................................72Chapter 8: The Zone Diet: Your Primary Defense in Fighting Toxic Fat.......................................85Chapter 9: Super Fish Oil: Your Final Defense in Fighting Toxic Fat........................................102Chapter 10: Putting It All Together........................................................................121Chapter 11: Overcoming Obstacles to Your Success...........................................................135Chapter 12: The Coming Reckoning...........................................................................150Chapter 13: Anti-Inflammatory Meals to Reverse Toxic Fat Syndrome in Less Than 30 Days.....................155AppendicesA. Continuing Support......................................................................................239B. Blood Testing for Silent Inflammation...................................................................241C. Hormones: The Keys to Your Biological Internet..........................................................243D. Eicosanoids: Hormones of Mystery........................................................................254E. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Fish Oil But Were Afraid to Ask................................269F. Insulin Resistance: It All Starts in Your Adipose Tissue................................................281G. Nutrigenomics: How Diet Affects the Expression of Your Genes............................................291H. Zone Food Blocks........................................................................................298Glossary...................................................................................................312Bibliography...............................................................................................316

Chapter One

DIRE WARNINGS APPEAR EVERY DAY. GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS make impressive speeches about its dangers. Task forces are being assembled. Massive funds are promised. What is the cause of this grave concern? Are we going to war again? Yes, we are, and the enemy is obesity.

Many of us have battled extra pounds, and it hasn't been a particularly successful battle. People without weight problems seem to think the cause of obesity is simply sloth and gluttony. I believe the root cause is something far more insidious, which I liken to a cancer that threatens every organ in the body. And in many people, accumulation of excess body fat initially represents a biological defense response trying to protect our bodies from this potential "cancer."

This means that all of our efforts to follow the advice of simple slogans such as "eat less and exercise more" may be meaningless, and our current obesity crisis will continue unabated, if not accelerate-unless we attack the problem from a different perspective.

What we see as our current obesity epidemic is only the tip of a vastly more dangerous epidemic of inflammation-not the type of inflammation we can feel, but inflammation that lies below the perception of pain. I call this silent inflammation. It is this type of inflammation that is driving our obesity epidemic and a wide number of other chronic diseases. The underlying cause of chronic disease comes from the increased production of a natural fatty acid called arachidonic acid (AA), which can be incredibly toxic at high enough concentrations. This is the toxic fat that is key to not only understanding our obesity epidemic but also providing the linkage between obesity and chronic disease. Oddly enough, accumulation of excess body fat is initially your body's attempt to protect you, by encapsulating or trapping this toxic fat in your fat cells so it doesn't attack your other organs. The problem is that the toxic fat doesn't stay trapped in your fat cells forever. Once it begins to spill over into the blood, you have Toxic Fat Syndrome. The resulting health problems associated with Toxic Fat Syndrome are relentless.

Toxic Fat Syndrome is the real epidemic that threatens our health. After years of inflammatory assaults caused by toxic fat, enough damage occurs to a particular organ that we call it chronic disease. That chronic disease might be heart disease, diabetes, cancer, or even Alzheimer's, but it had its start as Toxic Fat Syndrome.

Toxic Fat Syndrome has similarities to Toxic Shock Syndrome, which showed up in 1980, apparently caused by super-absorbent tampons. Both syndromes cause the body's normal immune system to go into overdrive attacking itself. But Toxic Fat Syndrome causes organ damage at a much slower rate. The vast majority of Americans suffer from Toxic Fat Syndrome and don't know it-and it is all caused by what you eat.

If the flow of toxic fat into the bloodstream is left unchecked, the result is a checklist of the chronic diseases that represent the bulk of our current health-care expenditures, such as:

* Allergies 2

* Asthma 2

* Autoimmune diseases (arthritis, lupus, and others) 2

* Cancer 2

* Heart disease 2

* Inflammatory diseases (Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, 2 and others)

* Neurological disorders (Alzheimer's, depression, ADHD, 2 and others)

* Type 2 diabetes 2

The appearance of each of these chronic diseases can be viewed as different manifestations of Toxic Fat Syndrome. Your genetics determine which organ in your body is affected first. But if you have one chronic condition associated with Toxic Fat Syndrome, the others are probably not too far behind.

You can't tell if people have Toxic Fat Syndrome just by looking at them. Only the blood will reveal it because the appearance of toxic fat in the bloodstream is the first sign you are no longer well and are headed more rapidly toward any one of many chronic conditions associated with Toxic Fat Syndrome. But don't despair; you can begin to reverse Toxic Fat Syndrome in less than thirty days if you follow the easy dietary prescriptions I describe in this book. The Real Epidemic Behind the Obesity Crisis

Even though an increase in obesity may initially be your body's way to try to prevent the spread of toxic fat to other organs, these storage sites for toxic fat can also be staging areas for its future malignant spread throughout the body. The sooner you realize that you have circulating toxic fat, the more easily it can be reversed before there is too much organ damage. The solution to Toxic Fat Syndrome is the same factor that caused it...