If you are struggling to lose weight, I recommend listening to this podcast where Ezra Klein interviews neurobiologist and author Stephan Guyenet about the “evolutionary mismatch between our brains, our genetics and our environments.” Instead of the typical dieting blather offered by everyone and their mother, this was a scientific discussion about how modern food affects our brains and what we can do about it.
Guyenet explained how hyper-palatable foods (ie. all processed foods) are designed to make us crave them and overeat. He detailed how these high calorie foods are irresistible because they trigger pleasure receptors in our brains, similar to the way opioids & heroin do. When humans were hunter gatherers, this was a survival mechanism because high-calorie foods were hard to find. Even finding any food was required a lot of work. Now, with an overabundance of highly available, high calorie, hyper-palatable foods and no sufficient defense against them, of course we have an obesity problem.
He discusses why calorie restrictive dieting, willpower, morals and advice to “eat less” aren’t working and cannot work over the long term.
Then Guyenet offers a solution.
He explains how the recently hyped weight loss drug, Ozempic, interrupts the brain triggers and enables people to feel satiated, thus resulting in eating less and losing weight. He goes on to argue that drugs which interrupt the food/brain pathways are the solution for the obesity problem in the US.
That may be true. His argument is powerful.
But I think he’s missing an alternative approach – the one I have taken.
- Do not eat hyper-palatable processed foods.
- Do some intense physical activity every day.
- Walk a lot.
- Eat a very limited, ow carb diet. (In my case, initially primal/paleo, then keto and now carnivore)
I have done my own experiments.
I was a fat kid. Then I thinned out in my teens and early 20s only to get fat again from my mid 20s to my mid 40s. I tried many kinds of diets to control my weight. I thought I was eating healthily.
Now I realize I was wrong.
I was eating too many carbs and too much processed food. I was binging on certain foods that were purportedly “healthy” like whole grain bread, baked chips and fat free foods.
Sometimes I could drop 10 or 20 pounds and keep it off for months. But eventually, my overeating habits would creep back in and I’d put on an extra 10 or 20 pounds. I figured that maybe it was genetic and I’d never get back to my slim, lean teenage physique.
And then, when I was in my mid 40s, things changed. First I tried to a vegetarian diet. I dropped from 195 lbs to 155 lbs. I was hungry all the time, but I was much lighter. That carried me for 5 years. Eventually I transitioned to a primal/paleo diet. My energy increased, my ravenous hunger diminished and my mood improved.
From there I switched to keto and finally to carnivore, which I’ve done for the past 2 years.
I don’t have the willpower to not binge foods that taste great. If I buy ice cream, chocolate bars, peanuts, almonds, potato chips, cheese, etc, I am going to eat the entire bag, carton or bin in one sitting. The only way I have found I can control this is by never buying these these foods at all.
Now I know why.
As for Ozempic and gastric bypass surgery, which are both being pushed right now, I’ll pass.
I’ve read the pubMed study on using Ozempic for weight loss. It shows that people lost weight over the course of the study. It also detailed some of the adverse side effects like nausea, diarrhea and stomach upset. It glossed over other side effects by lumping them under a generic heading of “serious side effects”.
Also, it noted that once people stopped using Ozempic, their weight went back up.
Unsurprisingly, it was paid for my Novo Nordisk (the manufacturer of Ozempic). I have some skepticism:
- Follow the money. If Novo Nordisk is paying for the studies, the researchers and physicians behavior and results will reflect this. It is human nature not to bite the hand that feed you.
- Consider the source. Novo Nordisk has a vested interest in proving this out for weight loss. It would be a continuous, ever expanding revenue stream. Any studies that would refute its effectiveness will be muted or discarded and never make it to peer review. That, I’ve heard scientists say, is a common tactic.
Lastly, nobody* is going to promote a carnivore/paleo/primal/low carb diet with no processed foods. They can’t make any money from it.
That said, I think Ozempic and the next generation weight loss medication to come will have a big impact on society. I’d predict they will help a lot of people lose weight. Few people will choose the path I chose. It’s limiting. It’s unconventional. It’s socially awkward at best and polarizing at worst because it goes against a lifetime of nutritional guidance we’ve received from the USDA, the media, our families and society.
It’s much easier to pop a pill or, in the case of Ozempic, get an injection.
And I understand completely. I’m not judging anyone who tries this. But I won’t hold back on casting judgement on big Pharma, big Medicine and big Food.
*No Pharma company or food manufacturer will promote this type of study. There are plenty of other people, both legit and hucksters, who will promote these diets and many others. They make their money money selling diet programs, exercise programs, books, memberships, clicks, supplements, etc. I’ve read many of their blogs and listened to their podcasts. With a lot of skepticism and significant mistrust, I’ve managed to avoid paying for anyone’s advice and I’m still here – alive and well.