I was recently blown away when I visited the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA) website. One of their goals is to prevent discrimination against people who are obese, which is something I agree with. They also seem to promote obesity as something positive, beneficial, and joyful, and I find this to be problematic. Please don’t get me wrong. I would never shame someone because of their body size. Yet, if they came to me as a patient and were clinically overweight or obese, I would inform them that they have a medical condition that could negatively impact the quality or length of their life. After all, excess body fat or obesity is an accepted medical condition around the world.
I believe one reason for this “fat acceptance” trend is our utter lack of success in treating the problem. Despite our best efforts, overweight and obesity have become the norm over the past few decades. If obesity were caused by excess food consumption, you would think we would have figured out a way to eat less food. The new GLP-1 receptor agonist medications have been helpful in this regard, but we have yet to turn this ship around despite our best efforts. What if the medical and scientific professions have completely been wrong about the nature of this epidemic? I suspect that is the case. Allow me to explain.
The Nature of the Beast
Most experts agree that our obesity epidemic took off over the past 50-60 years. In the 1980s, I had a solo medical practice in a small town on the Iron Range in Northern Minnesota. When I noticed that more of my patients were becoming obese, I decided to study the problem. The experts wanted us dummies in primary care to use body mass index (BMI) to measure obesity. BMI is a size measure that tells you nothing about the amount of fat in your body. Obesity is defined as “a chronic condition characterized by an excessive accumulation of body fat that poses a health risk.” That’s why I decided to purchase equipment to measure body composition. Over the decades, I measured the body composition of every patient at every visit. I also had an interest in neuroscience and belonged to Stephan Stahl’s Neuroscience Education Institute, so I was very aware of my patients’ brain dysfunction symptoms. Over time, I noticed a strange correlation between specific brain dysfunction symptoms and changes in body composition. The symptoms seem to precede changes in body composition by a week or two. Over time, it became apparent that this fits the pattern of a disease that I named Carbohydrate Associated Reversible Brain Syndrome or CARB Syndrome. Over time, I determined that the 22 symptoms of CARB Syndrome were due to the depletion of neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin from glucose spikes caused by the consumption of ultra-processed food. The lead symptoms of CARB Syndrome are having intense cravings for sweet and starchy food and excess hunger, pushing people to consume more of the very food that is frying their brains. Because obesity is the gateway to many other chronic diseases, I believe that “fat acceptance” is a dangerous and disingenuous approach to the problem.
There is a Solution—“Health Acceptance”
If you hope to turn around this ship, you need to follow these critical steps:
- You must suppress your cravings for sweet and starchy food and runaway hunger drives. The best way is to take a precursor supplement like CARB-22. Based on your response, I recommend starting with two capsules twice daily and increasing up to four capsules twice daily. If you are taking an SSRI-type medication, do not take more than two capsules of CARB-22 daily and keep the dose of the medication low.
- I recommend adding extra L-glutamine to suppress carb cravings. Start with 500 mg twice daily and increase as needed. There is no maximum dose.
- Take enough high-quality omega-3 to get your AA/EPA ratio between 1 and 3 to suppress excess inflammation in your body that is associated with excess body fat. I take OmegaRx2 from Barry Sears of Zone Diet fame. Please don’t skimp on quality when it comes to omega-3 supplements!
- Exercise regularly, including five days of aerobic exercise and two days of strength training weekly.
- Significantly reduce or eliminate your ultra-processed food intake and follow a Mediterranean-style diet.
- Limit fructose intake to no more than 20 grams daily from any source.
- Consider adding a GLP-1 receptor agonist medication like Wegovy for no longer than 2-3 months. At that point, taper the drug and continue the supplements.
- Regarding supplements, I highly recommend reading “Head First” by my friend David Tomen.
If you follow this program, you can move from “fat acceptance” to “fat good riddance”! You will not only be metabolically much healthier, but your brain function will also dramatically improve. I bet you can then figure out a way to accept this combination and forget all about “fat acceptance.” Let’s agree to call it “health acceptance.” I wish you the best on your journey back to optimal health and brain function!
Edited by Andy Steinfeldt
