Anushka Asthana talking to Dr Andrew Jenkinson, consultant in bariatric surgery (weight loss). He describes how his patients’ experiences of weight loss led him to spend years studying metabolism and weight reduction. Why, even though most people eat foods with too many calories, only some will be obese?
Genes make you obese, he says, but your genetics need to be stimulated by environmental change for you to be obese. In parts of the world where numbers eat local, fresh ingredients, numbers will not be fat. But if you convert that food supply to processed food, some of that population will be obese.
The United Arab Emirates is a good example of this, says Jenkinson, which has clinics in Dubai. He states that the population ate the Bedouin diet two generations ago. Now they have a much more processed diet and obesity rates have gone up – 50% of UAE women are obese.
Jenkinson believes that by reducing sugar and regenerated carbohydrates, raising our omega 3 and 6 levels, and lowering our levels of cortisol (a stress hormone) rather than cutting calories, people can reduce the weight permanently.
Jenkinson ‘s book Why We Eat (Too Much) is out now. whyweeattoomuch.co.uk
Archive: YouTube; ABC The Biggest Loser; University of Minnesota School of Public Health; Fox; Get the call; The Coach Corp; Huntley Film Archives
Photo: Chris Radburn / PA
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