Robert Crayhon

I just had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Glade, PhD, on obesity and inflammation for an upcoming Nutritional Medicine Update CD, which will soon be available. Also, let me know by leaving a comment if you would like these put up as free podcasts.

Dr. Glade, for those who may not know, is one of brightest, best, and most sanguine nutritionists and researchers in the country: sanguine being a definite plus. He lives in Chicago, and his temperament reminds me of the Chicago writer Saul Bellow’s quote that “By the time the latest ideas reach Chicago, they’re worn thin and easy to see through.” Dr. Glade embodies that no-nonsense clarity to his distillation of the research.

The most interesting thing for me from Dr. Glade was that central obesity encourages the fat cells around the gut to become more inflamed, and in turn they respond to insulin better, and in turn they become larger, and in turn create more inflammation–and the downward spiral continues.

I attended Oberlin College, and a prank pulled by students there many years ago was to walk a cow up the steps to the top of Peters hall–and since cows cannot walk down stairs, the cow was trapped there. I still don’t know how they got the cow down–a crane? This reminds me of obesity–at first, in 99% of cases, simply too many calories. But the road down is not as simple or easy.

In my discussion below, do you object to my use of the word fat? I think the word obese is an enabling word. It softens the blow and says, “Have another piece of cake!” Fat people are fat. This doesn’t make them bad. They are, however, fat, just as sure as I am tall.

Once people are very fat, it is hard to lose weight because their insulin metabolism becomes disordered. So, firstly, it is too many trips to the fridge–not genetics. Obesity was rare 100 years ago, and no spaceships have come down and injected new genes in us in the interim. However, our species is not meant to withstand 64 oz soft drinks and other nutritional weapons of mass destruction leveled at us at fast food establishments. Obesity, an epidemiologist James Hill has written, is a normal response to the American environment. And we have to change that environment. Two trillion dollars a year is spent on just that portion of food that makes us fat. We spend another 2 trillion on the diseases caused by that obesity. So, a large part of our economy depends on people getting and staying obese.

It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the corporate media wants to send us the message that it’s OK to be fat by including more fat and very fat people in ads and TV shows. That may seem palliative to the pains of those who struggle with obesity and its attendant health problems, but it is actually cruel, and says its OK to eat your way to an early grave. One way or another, we must realize that while it might be OK to have a few extra pounds, an extra hundred is not OK. Walter Willett’s research at Harvard has shown that the biggest predictor of your longevity is not your blood markers, but your waist size. So, that’s reality–and if it offends some, pity, because if you listen to it you might add 20 years to your life.

Back to Dr. Glade: Michael, thank you for the interview and continuting contribution to the field. Keep up your brilliant work. We are going to need all hands on deck if we are going to solve the obesity crisis.