One in Five American Deaths Now Associated with Obesity
December 21, 2013
Story at-a-glance
A new study found that nearly one in five US deaths is
associated with obesity, which is nearly three times higher
than previous estimates
The number of Americans who are overweight or obese is
probably much higher than studies suggest because the tool
most often used is BMI, which is flawed and doesn’t take
into account body fat distribution
Obesity-related deaths include those from type 2 diabetes,
hypertension, heart disease, liver disease, cancer,
dementia, and depression because nearly all have metabolic
dysfunction as a common underlying factor
The only effective way to reverse these trends is to make
changes in your diet and lifestyle; drugs are definitely not
the answer
By Dr. Mercola
A new report reveals staggering statistics about the extent
to which the obesity epidemic is robbing Americans of their
health and longevity. Columbia University and Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation examined the real impact of obesity on death
rates.1
The study found that nearly one in five US deaths is
associated with obesity, which is more than three times
higher than previous estimates.
The effect varies somewhat by your gender, race and age. The
younger you are, the greater obesity’s influence on your
mortality. And contrary to a previous study2,
obesity is not protective if you’re elderly. The Columbia study
found the following percentage of deaths associated with high
BMI (body mass index):
Black women: 26.8 percent of deaths were associated with
a BMI of 25 or above (overweight or obesity)
White women: 21.7 percent
White men: 15.6 percent
Black men: 5 percent
The authors wrote:
“We believe that it is imperative for the US public
and those who construct policy for that public to recognize
that population health and more than a century of steady
gains in life expectancy are being jeopardized by the
obesity epidemic. Indeed, evidence has already implicated
high rates of obesity as a significant contributor to the
United States' relatively low life expectancy among
high-income countries.”
But It May Be Even Worse...
Obesity rates could be much worse than these studies suggest,
for a couple of reasons. First, the number of Americans who are
overweight or obese increases every year and is already
considerably higher today than it was in 2006, the final year
for data used in the Columbia University study.3
Secondly and more importantly, the study uses
BMI to gauge obesity, which is a seriously flawed index
that doesn’t take into account percentage body fat, or the
distribution of that fat.
When those variables are factored in, the number of people
who meet the criteria for obesity is MUCH higher—possibly even
twice as high! Even without adjusting for body fat, if obesity
trends are accurate, societal impacts will be far worse by 2030.
Rates of “extreme
obesity” (people with a BMI above 40) have risen by 350
percent over the past few years.4
As far as simple indicators go, waist size is a better
predictor of heart disease risk than body weight or BMI.
Determining your waist size is easy. With a tape measure, figure
the distance around the smallest area of your abdomen below your
rib cage and above your belly button. If you're not sure if you
have a healthy waist circumference, a general guide is:
For men, between 37 and 40 inches is overweight and more
than 40 inches is obese
For women, 31.5-34.6 inches is overweight and more than
34.6 inches is obese
Obesity as a Harbinger of Death
Unfortunately, obesity statistics are a bit tricky to
determine because obesity itself is never listed as the
cause of death. Instead, the complications of obesity, such as
heart disease or diabetes, are blamed for a person’s death. If
you are obese, your risk for a number of serious health problems
multiplies.
Eight obesity-related diseases account for a staggering 75
percent of healthcare costs in the US. These diseases include:
The four diseases in the left column are associated with
metabolic syndrome, which is a common factor in obesity.
However, several other diseases fall within this category as
well, which are listed on the right. And many more could be
added to that list. According to the Surgeon General, in
addition to the above, obesity increases your risk for asthma,
sleep disorders (including sleep apnea), depression, pregnancy
complications, and poor surgical outcomes.5
While obesity is associated with metabolic syndrome and the
diseases mentioned above, it is not their cause; it is
simply a marker. The common link among them is metabolic
dysfunction, and excessive
sugar/fructose consumption is a primary driver. Please
realize that you can have metabolic dysfunction and be prone to
“obesity-related diseases,” even if your body weight is fine—you
can’t rely on your BMI alone, as it won’t give you the complete
picture.
Socioeconomic forces and a food system that is stacked
against healthful eating make it extremely difficult for many
people to adopt a healthful lifestyle. This is compounded by the
vast sea of misinformation out there, some of which comes
directly from government regulators and so-called nutrition
experts.
One dogma that has contributed to the ever-worsening health
of Western society is "a calorie is a calorie." This is one of
the first things dieticians are taught in school, but
unfortunately, it is completely FALSE! A second common myth is
that obesity results from eating too much and exercising too
little—i.e., consuming more calories than you're expending. This
has led to the view that obese people are simply "lazy."
But there are societal forces at work that go beyond personal
habits. An increasing number of infants are even becoming obese,
and "laziness" is certainly not a label that can easily be
affixed to an infant. The societal changes over the past 60
years have created what amounts to the perfect storm for eroding
human health—a dramatically changing
food environment, combined with reduced exercise and
increased exposure to a wide array of industrial and
agricultural chemicals that have adverse biological effects.
Key among these changes to our food environment is the
excessive use of sugar, added to virtually all processed foods
primarily in the form of high fructose corn syrup. And this is
where the fallacy of "a calorie is a calorie" comes into play,
because a calorie from fat does not impact your body in
the same way as a calorie from sugar. The single largest factor
driving obesity is excess sugar in the Western diet,
specifically fructose.
The problem is further inflamed by the recent proclamation by
the American Medical Association that “obesity
is a disease,” which ignores obesity’s root causes and calls
Big Pharma to the rescue. Conveniently, two new prescription
weight loss drugs have recently been released, and two obesity
vaccines are under development. Drugs are not the answer, no
matter how convincing their advertising campaigns may be. The
only way to reverse these trends is with diet and lifestyle
changes.
Similar to Drinking Alcohol, Excessive Sugar Acts as a Poison
According to Dr. Robert Lustig, one of the leading experts on
childhood obesity, excessive amounts of sugar can serve as a
toxin that contributes to obesity in a big way, as well as many
chronic and lethal diseases. Research shows that fructose can
activate taste cells found on your pancreas, which can increase
your body’s secretion of insulin and raise your risk of type 2
diabetes. Dietary sugar combines with amino acids to create
advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in your body, and
these compounds cause damage that leads to disease and premature
aging.
The idea of losing weight by counting calories simply isn’t a
valid approach because your body metabolizes glucose and
fructose along two distinctly different pathways. Fructose is
broken down very much like alcohol, damaging your liver and
causing mitochondrial and metabolic dysfunction in the same way
as ethanol and other toxins. Your liver immediately converts
most of the fructose you eat into fat, for storage. So, you get
fat because you are eating the wrong types of calories,
as opposed to too many calories, and the problem is amplified by
not getting enough exercise.
The average American consumes one-third of a pound of sugar
per day, half of which is fructose. As a standard
recommendation, I strongly advise keeping your TOTAL fructose
consumption below 25 grams per day. You may find this
fructose chart helpful in estimating how many grams of
fructose you are consuming each day.
Tips for Conquering Obesity, Once and For All
For optimal health and longevity, it is necessary to return
to a lifestyle closer to our
hunter-gatherer roots. We've strayed too far from the foods
we were designed to eat, so going back to basics with a focus on
fresh, unprocessed whole foods, with a minimal amount of sugar
and grain, will prevent most people from becoming overweight.
Addressing the following diet and lifestyle factors is your best
way of achieving a long and healthy life!
Proper Food Choices
For a comprehensive nutrition guide, refer to my optimal
nutrition plan. Generally speaking, focus on consuming
whole, ideally organic, unprocessed foods that come from
healthy, sustainable and preferably local sources. For the
highest nutritional benefit, eat a good portion of your
food raw.
Although there are clearly individual differences, most
people would do well to strive for a diet high in healthful
fats (as high as 50-70 percent of the calories consumed),
moderate amounts of high quality protein, and abundant
vegetables. Non-vegetable carbohydrates should be a fairly
small part of your overall diet. For sweetening, you can use
the herb stevia, or natural cane sugar and honey in very
small amounts.
High Quality Animal-Based Omega-3 Fats
Increase your intake of omega-3 fats and reduce your
intake of processed omega-6 fats. An
animal-based omega-3 fat like krill oil is essential for
heart and brain health.
Comprehensive Exercise Program, including
High-Intensity Exercise
Even if you're eating the best diet in the world, you
still need to exercise—and exercise effectively—if you wish
to optimize your health. You should be incorporating
core-strengthening exercises, strength training, and the
right kind of stretching, as well as high-intensity “burst”
type activities. Consider combining these with
intermittent fasting to supercharge your metabolism.
Extreme endurance training has been scientifically
proven to do more harm than good so should be avoided.
Optimize Your Vitamin D
The important factor when it comes to vitamin D is your
serum level, which should ideally be between 50-70 ng/ml
year-round, and the only way to determine this is with a
blood test. Sun exposure or a safe tanning bed is the
preferred method, but a vitamin D3 supplement can be used
when necessary. Most adults need about 8,000 IU's of vitamin
D per day to achieve serum levels of 40 ng/ml.
If you take supplemental vitamin D, you also need to make
sure you're getting enough
vitamin K2, as these two nutrients work in tandem to
ensure calcium is distributed into the proper areas in your
body. Vitamin K2 deficiency is actually what produces the
symptoms of vitamin D toxicity, which includes inappropriate
calcification that can lead to hardening of your arteries.
Fermented vegetables can be a great source of vitamin K2 if
you ferment your own using the proper starter culture
designed to generate vitamin K2 like the one we will offer
later this year. Gouda and Edam cheese are also good
sources.
Stress Reduction and Emotional Housekeeping
There are often emotional factors underlying weight gain,
so it’s important to do some regular emotional housekeeping.
In fact, your emotional state plays a roll in nearly every
physical disease, and yet it’s the factor most often
neglected. Stress has a direct impact on inflammation, which
underlies many of the chronic diseases that kill people
prematurely every day. Meditation, prayer, yoga, and energy
psychology tools such as
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) are all viable
options that can help you relieve stress and clear out
hidden emotional blocks.
Avoid as Many Chemicals, Toxins, and Pollutants
as Possible
This includes tossing out your
toxic household cleaners, soaps, personal hygiene
products, cosmetics, air fresheners, bug sprays, pesticides
and insecticides, just to name a few, and replacing them
with
non-toxic alternatives.
When walking barefoot on the earth, free electrons
transfer from the ground into your body through the soles of
your feet. These free electrons are some of the most potent
antioxidants known to man. Experiments have shown that these
electrons decrease pain and inflammation, improve heart
rate, promote sound sleep, and make your blood less viscous,
which has a beneficial impact on your health.
Lack of grounding due to widespread use of rubber or
plastic-soled shoes has contributed to the rise of modern
diseases by allowing chronic inflammation to proliferate
unchecked. So the more you can walk barefoot on the ground,
the better. Ideal locations are the beach, close to or in
the water, and on dewy grass. If you spend much time
indoors, you may want to consider investing in an Earthing
mat.