The Urge To Eat

by Royce Bailey M.D., M.P.H., F.A.A.C.

Why Am I So Hungry

Americans have a love affair with food. Usually fried or sugary, is most craved. At a recent first grade anti-obesity class in Henderson County, NC, over half of the pupils ate fast food daily. Many were unaware that this might be unhealthy. Also, some children had been told by their parents to not drink water because it was unhealthy, so they drank soda instead. Many obese children and adults are ravenously hungry all the time. Nothing the family or doctors say or do can keep them from constantly eating and therefore, from getting fatter.

Survival Of The Fattest

The miracle every one is looking for is something that makes fat melt off our bodies. Such is the dream of every dieter: a treatment that makes you slim by magically suppressing your hunger. Why do some people get fat and why do others stay thin? People who efficiently store food in the form of fat were the ones most likely to survive famines and pass on their “thrifty” genes (like the bedouins in the Middle East today). Those that stored their food for lean times, didn’t need to store their food as fat and their genes reflected that. So some people genetically really can eat all they want and stay thin. They may be the genetic oddity, though. Most of us have a genetic profile that leads us to get fat when there’s plenty of food.

Is Obesity Glandular Or Hormonal?

Popular diets have fostered the myth that obesity is due to the lack of willpower. Our genetic profile plays a big role in determining how fat we are, as it does determining our ultimate height. Fat cells communicate with the brain (saying more chocolate, more french fries) via a hormones found in 1994, called leptin. Leptin is part of a complex system that regulates body fat and hunger. When we put on fat, fat cells release leptin. Which signals the brain to suppress your appetite. When we burn fat, leptin levels fall and the hunger center of the brain (thalamus) says, “eat something.”

Resistant To The Hunger-Suppressing Hormone-Leptin

There are a few obese people (exceedingly rare) that genetically lack the ability to make leptin and when supplied with leptin dramatically lose weight. Scientists thought they had found the dieters magic bullet. Paradoxically, 90% of obese people actually have high levels of leptin and are resistant (the brain is not responding to the leptin). Some scientists have even suggested that leptin’s trouble reaching the brain is from fat particles (triglycerides) gumming up the blood-brain barrier making it hard for leptin to get across. Triglyceride levels rise as people gain weight, thus preventing leptin from reaching the brain, they say. The lack of leptin makes people feel that they are starving and they eat more, adding even more fat, that increases their leptin resistance and makes them hungrier.

Causes For Weight Loss Failure

There are other factors besides leptin that cause people to become overweight, but resistance to this hormone makes losing weight very hard. ‘Resistance to leptin’ people need more leptin to suppress their appetites. But as fat cells shrink, the bodies’ leptin levels fall and that triggers hunger pangs and slows your metabolism. Your brain responses as if you were in a famine, conserving energy and ordering you to eat, eat, eat. Thus, shedding pounds and keeping them off can be very difficult. This is why so many people that lose weight will gain it right back. Low and high metabolisms run in families. Many overweight people can survive on 500 to 1000 calories a day, by this leptin-fat cell mechanism.

Appetite’s Two Opposites: Ghrelin/stimulant vs. PYY/suppression

Ghrelin is produced in the stomach and is a hunger hormone. As we diet and lose weight ghrelin levels increase. Ghrelin is one of the reasons we regain that weight after we have lost it. Ghrelin’s opposite hormone is Peptide YY3-36 (PYY), a hormone produced in the intestines, that promotes satiety (being full). When PYY is low in humans, they are more likely to be overweight. PYY (appetite suppression) infusions produced a fall in ghrelin (appetite stimulant) and thus weight loss. Ghrelin levels fall after gastric bypass surgery, because the stomach is “bypassed.” Researchers are hoping to market a pill that has leptin and PYY in it for post weight loss/dieters to be able to keep off the pounds.

The Fat Causing Virus

In 2002, an analysis of 1000 people with antibodies (a sign of being infected) to the human adeno-virus-36 (AD-36) were significantly more likely to be overweight. AD-36 is a “cold” virus. AD-36 injected into monkeys caused dramatic weight gain. In some animals the virus caused their weight to triple. So can a virus make you fat? When fat cells are exposed to AD-36 they begin to multiply. Obesity is caused by your genes, metabolism and habits, and now add infection. A vaccine has been suggested, if AD-36 antibodies are found to be widespread. Now, another reason to wash your hands regularly to prevent this cold virus!

Fidgeters Lose Weight

Your weight depends on how much your eat and how much you move. Researchers have found another trait that determines how fast we burn calories: Fidgeting. Some people tap their fingers or jiggle their legs more than others. This tendency runs in families. Natural fidgeters are more sensitive to calories. They unconsciously increase their activity level after they eat too much and tended to weight less than those family members who did not fidget and ate the same amount of food.

Our Choice

We can’t pick our parents or change our genes, but we can change our environment. It is up to us what we eat and don’t eat. It is up to us if we watch an hour of TV or go for a walk. But, hunger cues via our hormones are so strong that even the steeliest will power isn’t enough to resist eating, in many people. So here are some tips:

• Pray without ceasing
• Exercise decreases your appetite.
• Increasing your water intake decreases your appetite.
• Increasing your fiber intake decreases your appetite.
• Eating very little or raw veggies for your evening meal resets your hunger drive.
• During stressful times eat more protein, not calorie rich fats and sugars.

Unready For The Loud Cry

“The health reform, I was shown, is a part of the third angel’s message, and is just as closely connected with it as are the arm and hand with the human body.” White, E.G., “Unready For The Loud Cry,” Testimonies To the Church, Vol.1; 1867:486-487.

“Gluttony is the prevailing sin of this age. Lustful appetite makes slaves of men and women, and beclouds their intellects and stupefies their moral sensibilities to such a degree that the sacred, elevated truths of God’s word are not appreciated. The lower propensities have ruled men and woman. In order to be fitted for translation, the people of God...should ever have the appetite in subjection to the moral and intellectual organs. The body should be servant to the mind, and not the mind to the body.” White, E.G., “Unready For The Loud Cry,” Testimonies To the Church, Vol.1; 1867:486-487.

“Whatever may be our inherited (genetic, in your DNA) or cultivated (habits, brain circuitry, reprogramming your DNA) tendencies to wrong, we can overcome through the power that He is ready to impart.” White, E.G., Ministry Of Healing, 1905:176.

DO YOU BELIEVE THAT.

References:

Jaret, P., “Beating The Urge To Eat,” Readers Digest, rd.com; July 2004:118-123

Atkinson, R.L, “.Human Adeno-virus-36 Is Associated With Increased Body Weight And Paradoxical Reduction Of Serum Lipids,” International Journal of Obesity, 2005;29:281-286.

Joyal, S., “Leptin, Ghrelin And PYY3-36: Magic Bullets Or Blanks?”physicalmag.com, Feb 2003:52-55.

Lemonick, M., “Lean And Hungrier,” Time; June 3,2002:54.