Turn Off the Fat Genes: The Revolutionary Guide to Losing Weight

334 Pages·2001·2.13 MB·English

by  Neal Barnard

Also by Neal Barnard, M.D
Food for Life
Eat Right, Live Longer
Foods That Fight Pain

A Note to the Reader
is to provide you with information on the power of foods
M Y GOAL
for health. However, neither this book nor any other can take
the place of individualized medical care or advice. If you have
any medical condition, are overweight, or are on medication, please talk
with your doctor about how dietary changes, exercise, and other medical
treatments can affect your health.
The science of nutrition grows gradually as time goes on, so I
encourage you to consult other sources of information, including the
references listed in this volume.
With any dietary change, it is important to ensure complete nutrition.
Be sure to include a source of vitamin B in your routine, which could
12
include any common multivitamin, fortified soy milk or cereals, or a
vitamin B supplement of five micrograms or more per day.
12
I wish you the very best of health.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword by Dean Ornish, M.D
Introduction

Part One
The Search for the Fat and Thin Genes
Chapter One: The Gene Search Pays Off
Chapter Two: Taste Genes: Broccoli and Chocolate
Chapter Three: Appetite and the Leptin Gene
Chapter Four: The Fat-Building Gene
Chapter Five: Fat-Burning: Turning the Flame Higher
Chapter Six: How Genes Influence Your Exercise

Part Two
Manipulating Gene Action
Chapter Seven: The Three-Week Diet Makeover
Chapter Eight: Food Choices for Optimal Weight Control
Chapter Nine: Complete Nutrition
Chapter Ten: About High-Protein Diets
Chapter Eleven: Children and the Fat Genes
Chapter Twelve: Getting Started

Part Three
Menus and Recipes
The Menu Plan
The Recipes
Product Guide/Resources
Mail-Order Sources for Selected Products
References
Acknowledgments
an enormous debt of gratitude to the people who made this book
I OWE
possible, especially Peter Guzzardi, for his keen editorial vision and
constant support; Patti Breitman, for her never-ending commitment
to bringing healthful nutrition into the public eye; and Jennifer
Raymond, whose menus and recipes translated nutritional theory into
practice in a delightful way. Brian Belfiglio and Wendy Schuman were
the essential bridges that helped the press and public understand the
importance of our scientific work. Elizabeth Matthews and Kathryn
Henderson kept this project on track in the many phases through which
ideas turn into print. Suzy Parker provided beautiful illustrations.
Andrew Nicholson, M.D., launched our first research efforts showing
the power of diet on weight control in our diabetes study conducted
with Mark Sklar, M.D., of Georgetown University. Anthony Scialli, M.D.,
also of Georgetown, has been a source of expert objectivity and
irreplaceable support as a coprincipal investigator in several of our
nutrition studies. Wayne Miller, Ph.D., and Jolie Glass, M.S., of George
Washington University conducted sophisticated metabolic analyses
monitoring our research participants’ progress, and Judy Harris gave
them culinary inspiration in her innovative cooking classes. Paul
Poppen, Ph.D., skillfully conducted the statistical analyses that separated
significant scientific findings from chance events.
Special thanks to Dean Ornish, M.D., for his research efforts that have
helped conquer seemingly insurmountable health challenges, and for
inspiring readers of this book with his kind foreword. Adam
Drewnowski, Ph.D., an innovative researcher uncovering the links
between taste and human DNA; David Bassett, Jr., Ph.D., an expert in
exercise genetics; and Claude Bouchard, Ph.D., a world leader in studies
of genetic effects on obesity patiently answered my many questions
about heredity’s role in weight control and the extent to which it can be
changed.
PCRM staffers Suzanne Bobela, Andrew Breslin, Simon Chaitowitz,
Jennifer Drone, Matthew Fritts, Laurice Ghougasian, A. R. Hogan,
Kathryn Kuhn, Mindy Kursban, Billy Leonard, and Miyun Park greatly
facilitated the conduct of our research, while Nabila Abdulwahab; Deniz
Corcoran; Sossena Dagne; Claudia Delman; Godfrey Fernando; Doug
Hall; Peggy Hilden; Laurel Kadish; Jennifer Keller, R.D.; Kristine
Kieswer; Amy Lanou, Ph.D.; Adaora Lathan-Sanders; Lisa Lynch;
Meredith Morrisette; and Brie Turner, M.S., R.D., kept our educational
efforts moving forward.
Most important of all, the participants in our research studies at the
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine gave an enormous
amount of time and energy as we investigated the power of foods for
health, and it is to them this book is dedicated.
Foreword
The same diet that is best for losing weight is
H ERE’S THE GOOD NEWS:
also optimal for enhancing your health and well-being.
Neal Barnard, M.D., has been a pioneer for many years in
advocating the benefits of a low-fat, whole-foods, plant-based diet. In the
studies that my colleagues and I at the nonprofit Preventive Medicine
Research Institute have conducted over the past twenty-four years, we
found that this type of diet may stop or reverse the progression of even
severe coronary heart disease. Other studies have shown that eating this
way may reduce the risk of a variety of other chronic diseases, including
diabetes, hypertension, obesity, osteoarthritis, prostate cancer, breast
cancer, colon cancer, and perhaps others.
However, most people don’t really think anything bad will ever
happen to them. They think prevention is borrrrr-ing: “I don’t care if I
die sooner, I want to enjoy my life.”
For many people, these are choices worth making—not only to live
longer, but also to live better. In the long run, fear of dying is not a good
motivator, but joy of living is. Most people find that when they follow
this type of diet, they feel better, have more energy, and experience an
overall improved sense of well-being.
And they lose weight and keep it off.
You can lose weight on just about any diet. Keeping it off is a lot
harder. A few years ago, the U.S. government reviewed all of the
different weight-loss plans. They found that within a year, 66 percent of
people gain back all the weight they lost, and 97 percent gain it all back
within five years.
We found in our research, however, that the average person lost
twenty four pounds in the first year and had kept off more than half that
weight five years later, even though they were eating more food, more
frequently, than before. Without hunger or deprivation. Simply. Safely.
Easily.
They not only felt better, in most cases they were better. We also
found a greater reversal of heart disease after five years than after one
year, and two and a half times fewer cardiac events such as heart attack,
stroke, bypass surgery, and angioplasty. The more closely people
followed the program, the better they were. Clearly, if you can reverse
heart disease by eating this way, then you can help prevent it.
Most weight-loss plans are based on deprivation: counting calories,
restricting portion sizes, and eating less food. Sooner or later, people get
tired of feeling hungry, so they go off the diet, regain the weight, and
usually blame themselves for not having enough discipline, willpower,
or motivation, when the real problem is that they were going about it in
the wrong way.
Here’s a better way: If you change the type of food, you don’t have to
reduce the amount of food. Fat has nine calories per gram whereas
protein and carbohydrates have only four calories per gram. So if you go
from a high-fat diet to a low-fat, whole-foods diet, even if you eat the
same amount of food, you consume far fewer calories. You feel better
and you become healthier.
When you switch from a diet based on animal protein and simple
carbohydrates to a whole-foods, plant-based diet, you get a quadruple
benefit:
The high fiber content of fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans
reduces insulin levels, so you lose weight and lower cholesterol
levels.
When you eat less fat, you eat fewer calories without eating less
food.
You avoid the animal-based products rich in substances that cause
illnesses.
You get thousands of other plant-based substances that are
protective.
Unfortunately, many people feel their problem is genetic and therefore
nothing they do will help them stay slim. Weight problems may run in
families—keeping appetities up and metabolisms down, and pushing