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The Cannoli Incident

Brian Sipotz • Oct 15, 2014

A few weeks ago I went to an Italian market and got a few things for a great Sunday night dinner.  In addition to getting some meat, cheese and bread, I picked up some great looking pastries including crème puffs and cannoli.   It turns out no one in my house really likes either of those deserts, so over the next few days I took it upon myself to polish them off.  In total it was about 8 Timbit sized crème puffs and 6 full sized cannoli.  A few days later I jumped on the scale…

After sticking at the same weight for 2 years, I found my weight had shot up 6lbs in 1 week!  It wasn’t just a dose of reality, but a great illustration of what we now know about weight gain and obesity.  Fat doesn’t make you fat, sugar makes you fat.  Although there are not enough calories in a couple cannoli to pack on 6 pounds of fat, I believe this little binge is a great illustration of how weight gain can get out of control in a short period of time.

We know now it is sugar and refined carbohydrates that cause people to get fat.  Gary Taubes argues this point in his book, Why We Get Fat.  The cycle goes like this: 1. We eat sugar and highly processed carbohydrates. 2. Those carbs are broken down very quickly in the body, causing a spike in blood sugar. 3. The spike in blood sugar causes the pancreas to produce and release insulin which is responsible for grabbing blood sugar and shuttling it from the blood to the muscles and fat tissues to be released as energy at a later time. 4. After insulin regulates blood sugar, the level fades (since it has done its job) and the fat cells and muscles are left with energy to burn until the next meal arrives. The problem is, when you constantly eat sugary or overprocessed food, your insulin level is not able to drop.  There are 2 problems with that. First, when insulin levels are constantly elevated, the receptor cells get used to that level and desensitize, requiring higher and higher concentrations of insulin in order to clear blood sugar.  This “insulin resistance” is the issue type 2 diabetics face. The other problem with increased concentrations of insulin in the blood is in the presence of insulin, the fat tissues that have absorbed the sugar from the blood are reluctant to release their contents, causing them to remain full.  This means fat cells enlarge and show up collectively as a paunch, muffin top, beer belly, or double chin. The worst part of this?  Since cells aren’t releasing glucose in the presence of elevated levels of insulin, they are not providing any energy and the body signals you to eat to get more energy! And the cycle continues.

OK, back to the cannoli.  Again, I didn’t gain 6 lbs of fat from them, but they obviously disrupted my body in some significant way. By consuming these delicious desserts consistently over a 3 day period, I was consistently spiking my blood sugar, followed by a spike in insulin. The repeated spikes may have caused elevated levels of insulin in my blood which forced fat cells to hold onto the glucose being stored there, causing me to gain weight and crave more sweets.  After I noticed the extra weight, I snapped myself back to my typical diet that is relatively low in sugar and flour and was back down to my regular weight within a week.

I use this story to illustrate the cycle that leads to fat gain over the period of months and years.  The most dangerous thing about eating sugary and refined foods is that they make you crave more sugary and refined foods. This leads to consistently heightened levels of blood sugar and insulin which can lead to more fat storage. This cycle can spiral out of control if you aren’t aware of it. For me, the cannoli incident drove home an important point. If I get on a track of eating sweet processed foods, I crave more and eat more of them. The more I know about this, the easier it is to get back to eating well.  Bottom line, you should understand how the cycle works so you can recognize when you are getting off track.

29 Mar, 2022
So far I’ve introduced a little about the “non-diet” approach , as well as the Diet Cycle , which many people find themselves stuck in when using a restrictive “diet” approach to food and health. For some of those people, the idea of eating what they love and “giving up” on diet or weight loss doesn’t seem like an option, understandably. We face a LOT of pressure, day after day, to eat “clean” and lose weight. That pressure may come from well-intentioned family, friends, and healthcare professionals who are concerned about our health (more on that later); or from fear-inducing headlines that compare sugar to poison; or from photo-shopped & face-tuned ads on Instagram of celebrities selling their flat tummy tea or shapewear. We are surrounded by Diet Culture, and are forced to engage with it- no matter if it’s coming from our loved ones, acquaintances, coworkers, or even strangers. What exactly is Diet Culture? You might have an idea just from the sound of it... Messaging that promotes diet & weight loss. Right? It’s actually more than that. Here’s a definition from Aubrey Gordon, author of “What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat”: Diet Culture: “A system of cultural beliefs and practices that equates thinness not just with health, but with moral virtue, and which advocates for weight loss at any cost. Diet culture isn’t just a matter of being on a diet, but of the social forces that make dieting (or lifestyle changes or wellness) culturally mandatory for so many of us.” The key phrases are “moral virtue” and “weight loss at any cost”. Diet culture doesn’t only convince us that weight loss is necessary (to be beautiful, to demonstrate our worth, or to be healthy); but it creates this pressure that we are MORALLY obligated to do so. In order to be perceived as good, responsible people, Diet Culture urges us to pursue weight loss at any cost- which could mean sacrificing our social life, a significant amount of money on supplements or meal replacements or programs, our emotional wellbeing, and even our physical wellbeing. Maybe diet and weight loss aren’t so healthy after all… And while this may not be everyone’s experience, we have research that demonstrates the following emotional impacts of restrictive dieting: Dieting is associated with higher anxiety levels (Kwasnicka, 2020) Dieting is associated with poorer emotional and mental quality of life (Burns etal, 2001) Dieting is linked with reduced life satisfaction (Esch and Zullig, 2013) Further, restrictive dieting has actually been found to cause weight GAIN. To be clear, weight gain is nothing to be ashamed about (bodies change!); but if the multibillion dollar diet industry is selling a diet plan for weight loss, they’re not exactly being honest about the likely outcomes. 1⁄3 to 2⁄3 regained weight within 1 year, with almost all weight regained within 5 years (1992 NIH Consensus) Most weight is gained back within 2 years and most gained back all the weight by 5 years (2013 Australian Research Council) A team of UCLA researchers reviewed 31 long term studies on the effectiveness of dieting and concluded that dieting is a consistent predictor of weight gain —up to two-thirds of the people regained more weight than they lost (Mann 2007) This quote from Weight Watchers former Finance Director sums it up pretty well:
07 Mar, 2022
Good morning! Thank you to everyone who came out to Break the Diet Cycle presentation. I hope you’re starting today feeling curious about Intuitive Eating and eager to rediscover your favorite foods in a fresh, positive way. I attached the PDFs of the presentation for you to reference, as well as the “HAES (Health at Every Size) Manifesto”, by Dr. Lindo Bacon, author of Health at Every Size. This provides a snapshot of the science behind the weight neutral approach, Health at Every Size, which Intuitive Eating is aligned with. For those of you who couldn’t attend, you may be wondering- what exactly is Intuitive Eating? As I mentioned in an earlier newsletter, Intuitive Eating is a non-diet approach to food and health. The framework consists of 10 principles to help you examine and reevaluate your beliefs & attitudes about your body, your food, physical activity, health, and more. While practicing Intuitive Eating, individuals relearn how to eat in accordance to their natural hunger and fullness cues; food cravings; energy needs, and so on. They begin to trust their body to tell them when to eat, what to eat, and how much to eat. The Ten Principles of Intuitive Eating are: 1. Reject the Diet Mentality 2. Honor Your Hunger 3. Make Peace with Food 4. Challenge the Food Police 5. Feel Your Fullness 6. Discover the Satisfaction actor 7. Cope with Your Feelings without Using Food 8. Respect Your Body 9. Exercise to Feel the Difference 10. Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition Intuitive Eating may seem like a straightforward concept, but in a culture that heavily promotes dieting and weight loss as a path to health, happiness, and even moral virtue, it can be hard to break out of the Diet Cycle (seen below). Also known as the “Restrict-Binge Cycle”, this eating pattern is typically kicked off by some diet thought, like “I need to lose weight” or “I need to start eating better”.
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