There are numerous blogs, books, podcasts, and articles promoting various diets as the healthiest way to eat. It is a confusing mess for the average person trying to figure out what to eat–low-carb, Paleo, Ketogenic, Zone, vegan, intermittent fasting, Mediterranean—are you getting dizzy yet? Now we have the GLP-1 agonist receptor drugs to further cloud the picture. I’ve experimented with all of them over several decades, both for myself and the patients I treat, and initially, most of them do result in some weight loss. If you measure body composition as I do, it’s not so simple. Some of these approaches result in a significant loss of lean body mass, and obesity is defined as excess body fat; therefore, losing lean body mass is heading down the wrong path.
To fix a problem, you first need to understand the underlying pathology of the condition you are treating. I asked AI about the cause of obesity, and I got this answer: “Obesity is a complex condition caused by a variety of factors, primarily an energy imbalance where calorie intake exceeds calorie expenditure.“ This is the same approach espoused by most experts on obesity. This approach is based on using body mass index (BMI) to define obesity. Obesity is defined as excess body fat. What does BMI tell you about the amount of fat in your body? The answer is zippo! BMI is a size measure, and I can tell your size by just looking at you. It tells you nothing about the amount of fat in your body.
To accurately measure obesity, you need to measure the parameter that defines the illness—body fat. It’s also important to remember that there are two types of fat—subcutaneous fat underlying your skin, and visceral fat in the abdominal cavity and internal organs. Visceral fat poses a greater metabolic risk by increasing inflammation and driving insulin resistance; however, subcutaneous fat is not benign, and it also influences these risk factors. There are various technologies to measure body fat, and visceral fat is best determined using a weight-to-height ratio.
Years ago, I purchased equipment to measure the body composition of every patient at every visit, and over decades I accumulated over 10,000 such measurements. Over time, I noticed a strange correlation between specific brain dysfunction symptoms and changes in body composition. The symptoms always seemed to come first, suggesting that when it comes to fat storage, the brain calls the shots. These symptoms seemed to fit the pattern of a disease, and the primary trigger of this disease appeared to be the long-term consumption of ultra-processed food consisting of:
- Excess sucrose from added sugars.
- Excess high glycemic carbohydrates like white flour, white rice, and potatoes.
- Excess omega-6 fatty acids from vegetable oils relative to omega-3 fatty acids.
- Lack of soluble fiber.
- Added artificial ingredients.
I therefore decided to call this newly described disease Carbohydrate Associated Reversible Brain syndrome or CARB syndrome. The lead symptom of CARB syndrome is having intense cravings for sweet and starchy food, pushing people to consume more of the food that is frying their brains. Some people with CARB syndrome manage to stay thin, but they still have excess body fat, and virtually all of it is visceral fat associated with insulin resistance. They also have significant brain dysfunction symptoms, so they are often inappropriately diagnosed with a common psychiatric disorder. In reality, obesity isn’t a “weight problem”—it’s a brain problem, so you can’t fix it by simply losing weight.
If you seem to fit this pattern, what should you do to improve your metabolic health and brain function? I recommend the following measures:
- Depleted levels of monoamine neurotransmitters cause the 22 symptoms of CARB syndrome. A key to treatment is to take a balanced neurotransmitter precursor product to rebuild these essential chemicals. I recommend a product called CARB-22. Start with two capsules twice daily and slowly increase to four capsules twice daily if needed to control symptoms, especially the cravings that push you to consume more of the very food that is frying your brain. The only precaution is to keep the dose low if you are taking any psychiatric medications.
- Avoid consuming ultra-processed foods and opt for whole foods with minimal processing instead. A Mediterranean-style diet is a reasonable choice for many people. My wife is Greek and we have a home in Greece, so it’s an easy choice for me!
- Exercise for 30-60 minutes at least five days per week. A combination of aerobic exercise and strength training is ideal.
- Try to get a minimum of 7-8 hours of restful sleep every night.
- Maintain healthy social relationships.
- Eat a variety of small fish and take a high-quality omega-3 supplement to maintain an optimal AA/EPA ratio of 1:3. I also recommend supplementing with Fatty-15.
- Alcohol is a neurotoxin, so the ideal dose is zero.
If you follow these steps, your brain function should gradually improve over time, and you should start losing excess body fat, regardless of your weight or size. You can achieve this without following any of the fancy diets listed above. What could be better than that?
