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Why Do You Overeat? When all you want is to be slim
Explains the three common medical conditions which cause insatiable food cravings. Provides the perfect diet to overcome these conditions and so to end food addiction and overeating. Explains why you eat emotionally, the impact of childhood messages, and gives the complete toolkit to transform your relationship with food.
248 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 1, 2021
WHY YOU MUST STOP COUNTING CALORIES
* carbohydrate, protein and fat have 4, 4, and 9 calories per gram respectively.
* calorie-reduced diets don't work, because body adjusts and we plateau within weeks.
* 6-8% of carbohydrate calories consumed are used up in converting carbohydrate into energy, 2-3% for fat and 25-30% for protein. Carbohydrates are easy to turn into energy and they start being digested with salivary enzymes, as soon as we start chewing. So two people can eat 2,000 calorie diet, but the one with the high carbohydrate diet is getting more calories.
* carbohydrate can only provide energy and it cannot help with any of the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) activities, so if I eat carbohydrates and I don't need the energy straight away, the body will have to release insulin to get the sugar out of the blood stream. This is how the sugar is turned into GLYCOGEN and the body may need it within the next few hours. If the body needs it, the energy comes out of the glycogen reserves, but if the body doesn't need it, the glycogen is turned into glycerol (=fat).
* The BMR calories are the fuel needed to keep us alive (pumping blood, fighting infections, keeping us warm, running the reproductive system). Only protein, fat, vitamins and minerals can help with BMR activities. Carbohydrates are purely for energy and they are useless as far as BMR is concerned.
* lean muscles use more energy than fat, so if you try to eat less, your body stores fat and uses up lean muscles. And since you are losing lean muscles, your metabolism slows down (the more muscle the higher the metabolism).
* fats are essential for our wellbeing, because they form the membrane that surrounds every cell in our body.
WHAT IS FOOD? HOW DOES THE BODY USE IT?
* there are three macronutrients: carbohydrates, fat, and protein.
* apart from oil (100% fat) and table sugar (100% carbohydrate), all other food contains protein with fat and/or carbohydrate = all other foods contain protein. Nuts, seeds, avocados, and whole milk have all three macronutrients – they are the most complete foods.
CARBOHYDRATES:
* carbohydrates break down into sugars for energy.
* monosaccharides – simple sugars that contain one molecule, hence the pre-fix "mono": glucose (fruit and grains), fructose (fruit), galactose (milk).
* disaccharides – made up of two monosaccharides: sucrose (glucose + fructose), lactose (galactose + glucose), maltose (glucose x 2).
* polysaccharides – made up of many molecules: glycogen – the form in which animals, including humans, store energy, starch – is the form in which plants store energy, fibre – indigestible form (sugars are linked by bonds that cannot be broken by human enzymes).
PROTEIN:
* protein breaks down into amino acids for cell repair and growth.
* protein is a family name for the group of molecules built from long chains of amino acids = chemical compounds containing carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen that combine together into different structures to form various types of protein.
* there are between 20 and 22 amino acids, 8 of which are considered essential (it means we need to consume them, and the body cannot make them by itself). Some proteins are known as "complete proteins" contain all essential amino acids.
* the body cannot store amino acids (as opposed to fat and carbohydrate), so we need to consume them in our diet.
* protein comes from the Greek word "port" = of primary importance. Its role is to build, maintain, and repair all body tissue (muscles, organs, skin, hair).
FAT
* fat break downs into fatty acids for cell repair and energy.
* there are two groups of fats that are of nutritional importance: saturated and unsaturated (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated).
* Saturated fats have all their available carbon bonds filled with, i.e. saturated with, hydrogen. Saturated fats are solid at room temperature. When our body turns excess glycogen into fat, it turns it into saturated fat. Unsaturated fats have pairs of hydrogen atoms missing and carbon atoms are double-bonded.
* Omega-3 and omega-6 fats are called Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs), because the body cannot make them, so it is essential that we consume them in our diet.
* every natural food that contains fat, contains all three fats, i.e., saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated.
* Fats provide us with EFAs: omega-3 (found in meat, fish and fish oils), omega-6 (found in meat, eggs, nuts, avocados, whole grains and seeds); they are carriers of the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, K; they supply the most concentrated form of energy; and they make our diets palatable (food with no fat is tasteless).
OTHER FACTS
* our normal levels of blood glucose are around 3.5-5.5mmol/L.
* Pancreas produces: a. hormones insulin and glucagon, b. digestion enzymes to help us break down the food we eat.
* High blood glucose level is dangerous to the body, so when we eat a lot of carbohydrates (that are turned into glucose), pancreas releases insulin to convert the excess glucose into glycogen to return our blood glucose level to normal.
* GLYCOGEN is the storage form of glucose found in the liver and muscles. The liver has the capacity to store approximately 100 grams of glycogen, muscles – 250-400 grams, depending on your muscle mass, physical condition, and regular carbohydrate intake. If all the glycogen storage areas are full, insulin will convert the excess to fat. If the glycogen is not used within 24 hours, it is converted into fat. This is why insulin has been called the "fattening hormone".
* Glucagon is released when blood glucose level dips too low. It breaks down body fat to release glucose/glycerol contained in body fat to elevate blood glucose levels.
* Alcohol inhibits the operation of glucagon, i.e., glucagon cannot break down body fat to elevate blood glucose levels. As your blood glucose level naturally falls over time, it calls upon glucagon to break down body fat, but since it cannot – because of the intake of alcohol – a. you don't lose weight, b. your blood glucose level stays low, which your body sees as a threat, hence it "makes" you eat.
* Type I diabetes – the pancreas doesn't release insulin to remove the glucose from the blood stream.
* Type II diabetes – the pancreas still produces insulin, but the cells of the body have become resistant to it. People develop this type of diabetes when they eat too much of carbohydrates, too often, so that the body cannot cope anymore.
* When we eat carbohydrates, our body decides how much of the energy is needed now and how much should be stored for later. Only carbohydrates trigger the release of insulin.
HOW DO WE GAIN OR LOSE WEIGHT?
* There are two forms of fat in the human body: fatty acids (form in which fat is burned for fuel by body) and triglycerides (form in which fat is stored by body as human fat tissue). Triglyceride is three fatty acids bonded by glycerol.
* Fat enters and exits fat cells as fatty acids, because triglycerides are too big to move across cell membrane. If three fatty acids are bonded by glycerol to form a triglyceride, they cannot get back out of the fat cell until the triglyceride is broken back down into glycerol and fatty acids.
* When we eat carbohydrates, the body brake them down into glucose, which enables the formation of glycerol, which can lock three fatty acids in a fat cell. The glucose is transported to the fat cell by insulin.
* When a body is in a state of low blood glucose, it will start looking for stored glucose to use. It will first use up the glycogen stored in liver and muscle before it starts breaking down body fat. If you have glucose or glycogen available in the body, you will not burn fat – the body will always use carbohydrates first if they are available.
* Energy can come from fat or carbohydrates.
* carbohydrate, protein and fat have 4, 4, and 9 calories per gram respectively.
* calorie-reduced diets don't work, because body adjusts and we plateau within weeks.
* 6-8% of carbohydrate calories consumed are used up in converting carbohydrate into energy, 2-3% for fat and 25-30% for protein. Carbohydrates are easy to turn into energy and they start being digested with salivary enzymes, as soon as we start chewing. So two people can eat 2,000 calorie diet, but the one with the high carbohydrate diet is getting more calories.
* carbohydrate can only provide energy and it cannot help with any of the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) activities, so if I eat carbohydrates and I don't need the energy straight away, the body will have to release insulin to get the sugar out of the blood stream. This is how the sugar is turned into GLYCOGEN and the body may need it within the next few hours. If the body needs it, the energy comes out of the glycogen reserves, but if the body doesn't need it, the glycogen is turned into glycerol (=fat).
* The BMR calories are the fuel needed to keep us alive (pumping blood, fighting infections, keeping us warm, running the reproductive system). Only protein, fat, vitamins and minerals can help with BMR activities. Carbohydrates are purely for energy and they are useless as far as BMR is concerned.
* lean muscles use more energy than fat, so if you try to eat less, your body stores fat and uses up lean muscles. And since you are losing lean muscles, your metabolism slows down (the more muscle the higher the metabolism).
* fats are essential for our wellbeing, because they form the membrane that surrounds every cell in our body.
WHAT IS FOOD? HOW DOES THE BODY USE IT?
* there are three macronutrients: carbohydrates, fat, and protein.
* apart from oil (100% fat) and table sugar (100% carbohydrate), all other food contains protein with fat and/or carbohydrate = all other foods contain protein. Nuts, seeds, avocados, and whole milk have all three macronutrients – they are the most complete foods.
CARBOHYDRATES:
* carbohydrates break down into sugars for energy.
* monosaccharides – simple sugars that contain one molecule, hence the pre-fix "mono": glucose (fruit and grains), fructose (fruit), galactose (milk).
* disaccharides – made up of two monosaccharides: sucrose (glucose + fructose), lactose (galactose + glucose), maltose (glucose x 2).
* polysaccharides – made up of many molecules: glycogen – the form in which animals, including humans, store energy, starch – is the form in which plants store energy, fibre – indigestible form (sugars are linked by bonds that cannot be broken by human enzymes).
PROTEIN:
* protein breaks down into amino acids for cell repair and growth.
* protein is a family name for the group of molecules built from long chains of amino acids = chemical compounds containing carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen that combine together into different structures to form various types of protein.
* there are between 20 and 22 amino acids, 8 of which are considered essential (it means we need to consume them, and the body cannot make them by itself). Some proteins are known as "complete proteins" contain all essential amino acids.
* the body cannot store amino acids (as opposed to fat and carbohydrate), so we need to consume them in our diet.
* protein comes from the Greek word "port" = of primary importance. Its role is to build, maintain, and repair all body tissue (muscles, organs, skin, hair).
FAT
* fat break downs into fatty acids for cell repair and energy.
* there are two groups of fats that are of nutritional importance: saturated and unsaturated (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated).
* Saturated fats have all their available carbon bonds filled with, i.e. saturated with, hydrogen. Saturated fats are solid at room temperature. When our body turns excess glycogen into fat, it turns it into saturated fat. Unsaturated fats have pairs of hydrogen atoms missing and carbon atoms are double-bonded.
* Omega-3 and omega-6 fats are called Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs), because the body cannot make them, so it is essential that we consume them in our diet.
* every natural food that contains fat, contains all three fats, i.e., saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated.
* Fats provide us with EFAs: omega-3 (found in meat, fish and fish oils), omega-6 (found in meat, eggs, nuts, avocados, whole grains and seeds); they are carriers of the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, K; they supply the most concentrated form of energy; and they make our diets palatable (food with no fat is tasteless).
OTHER FACTS
* our normal levels of blood glucose are around 3.5-5.5mmol/L.
* Pancreas produces: a. hormones insulin and glucagon, b. digestion enzymes to help us break down the food we eat.
* High blood glucose level is dangerous to the body, so when we eat a lot of carbohydrates (that are turned into glucose), pancreas releases insulin to convert the excess glucose into glycogen to return our blood glucose level to normal.
* GLYCOGEN is the storage form of glucose found in the liver and muscles. The liver has the capacity to store approximately 100 grams of glycogen, muscles – 250-400 grams, depending on your muscle mass, physical condition, and regular carbohydrate intake. If all the glycogen storage areas are full, insulin will convert the excess to fat. If the glycogen is not used within 24 hours, it is converted into fat. This is why insulin has been called the "fattening hormone".
* Glucagon is released when blood glucose level dips too low. It breaks down body fat to release glucose/glycerol contained in body fat to elevate blood glucose levels.
* Alcohol inhibits the operation of glucagon, i.e., glucagon cannot break down body fat to elevate blood glucose levels. As your blood glucose level naturally falls over time, it calls upon glucagon to break down body fat, but since it cannot – because of the intake of alcohol – a. you don't lose weight, b. your blood glucose level stays low, which your body sees as a threat, hence it "makes" you eat.
* Type I diabetes – the pancreas doesn't release insulin to remove the glucose from the blood stream.
* Type II diabetes – the pancreas still produces insulin, but the cells of the body have become resistant to it. People develop this type of diabetes when they eat too much of carbohydrates, too often, so that the body cannot cope anymore.
* When we eat carbohydrates, our body decides how much of the energy is needed now and how much should be stored for later. Only carbohydrates trigger the release of insulin.
HOW DO WE GAIN OR LOSE WEIGHT?
* There are two forms of fat in the human body: fatty acids (form in which fat is burned for fuel by body) and triglycerides (form in which fat is stored by body as human fat tissue). Triglyceride is three fatty acids bonded by glycerol.
* Fat enters and exits fat cells as fatty acids, because triglycerides are too big to move across cell membrane. If three fatty acids are bonded by glycerol to form a triglyceride, they cannot get back out of the fat cell until the triglyceride is broken back down into glycerol and fatty acids.
* When we eat carbohydrates, the body brake them down into glucose, which enables the formation of glycerol, which can lock three fatty acids in a fat cell. The glucose is transported to the fat cell by insulin.
* When a body is in a state of low blood glucose, it will start looking for stored glucose to use. It will first use up the glycogen stored in liver and muscle before it starts breaking down body fat. If you have glucose or glycogen available in the body, you will not burn fat – the body will always use carbohydrates first if they are available.
* Energy can come from fat or carbohydrates.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 5, 2014
The book gives a good introduction into the energy household of our body - how it functions and how ill-suited the modern diet is to meet its needs. In plain but not too simplifying language Ms. Harcombe explains that our metabolism runs on fat and proteins and therefore today's high carbohydrate intake is bound to lead to health issues. Three of these are discussed in more detail: candida, diabetes and food intolerances. While the first two were reasonably well explained, she did not make clear (to me) why eating a specific type of food could lead to a food intolerance and why the body would then crave this food all the more. Here a little more detail would have helped.
The author also seemed to look at some topics with a biased view:
- For example, I am aware of my unhealthy relationship to food that fits perfectly her description of overeating: of merely eating for the sake of giving in to cravings, not because I enjoy the taste. However, I am not obese and therefore being slim is most certainly not all I want - my motivation for reading this book was my health. Her preconception that everyone wants to lose weight sometimes grew a little annoying.
- Example 2: The chapter on psychology, especially on parent-child relationships seemed to draw too much from her own experience. As one example this is fine, but Ms. Harcombe focussed too much on that one specific type of dysfunctional communication - just because she had issues with her father does not mean everyone else has.
Overall, this was a good introduction for me into the wide realm of health theories revolving around real food and made me aware of a serious health issue I needed to address. I sought out many of the more advanced books that the author cited for more detailed information.
The author also seemed to look at some topics with a biased view:
- For example, I am aware of my unhealthy relationship to food that fits perfectly her description of overeating: of merely eating for the sake of giving in to cravings, not because I enjoy the taste. However, I am not obese and therefore being slim is most certainly not all I want - my motivation for reading this book was my health. Her preconception that everyone wants to lose weight sometimes grew a little annoying.
- Example 2: The chapter on psychology, especially on parent-child relationships seemed to draw too much from her own experience. As one example this is fine, but Ms. Harcombe focussed too much on that one specific type of dysfunctional communication - just because she had issues with her father does not mean everyone else has.
Overall, this was a good introduction for me into the wide realm of health theories revolving around real food and made me aware of a serious health issue I needed to address. I sought out many of the more advanced books that the author cited for more detailed information.
March 10, 2016
3.5 stars. There's a lot of interesting information in this book, but the second half is focused on things like childhood obesity and emotional issues that while interesting to some, left me skimming. The diet itself is in 3 parts, but basically it's about finding out which eating issues one has, how to recognize the problems through a process of elimination then re-introdcution and finding a healthy way to eating without gaining weight. Bottom line, eating a lot less carbs will help almost everyone.
February 2, 2014
Would give it five stars but by the end she had repeated certain statements so many times I had got rather bored and pretty fed up of reading. Still a must read and would reccommend it to anyone who knows or feels that the eat less, move more is not working and will never work for them. It just makes sense.
December 24, 2012
Easily explained and sensible advice, just need to apply it in the New Year!
April 19, 2013
Made sense in parts - others were quite scientific and towards the end I got pretty bored. The beginning is great reading though! It's possibly a book to dip in and out of in future.
July 12, 2013
Great information about the foods we eat and why we eat them.
July 27, 2020
I really enjoyed this book and even got thin for a bit then I continued to inflate...
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews