Friday, December 22, 2006
Turning Off The Fat Genes!
Another one in four people cannot taste PROP and are called "taste blind."
Their problem is they may tend to overeat, making up in quantity what they
are missing in taste. If this includes you, and you tend to be indiscriminate
in what you're eating, you'll want to take care to emphasize fruits, vegetables,
whole grains, and beans, and to be very cautious about fatty foods and their
hidden calories.* A gene on chromosome 7 makes leptin, the appetite-taming
hormone. In 1997, English researchers reported the case of two cousins who
became extremely obese very early in life. They demanded food continuously
and ate much more than their siblings. At age 8, one weighed 189 pounds. She
had so much trouble walking she had to have liposuction of her legs. Her cousin
was only two years old but already weighed 64 pounds. It turned out they shared
a rare mutation blocking the leptin gene.
With no leptin to curb hunger, their appetites were voracious.You are not likely
to have this same gene abnormality. However, your leptin may not be working
perfectly either. Very-low-calorie diets disrupt its appetite-taming effect, causing
your appetite to run out of control. The key to keeping leptin working right is to
avoid severe calorie restrictions. If you eat at least 10 calories per day per pound
of your ideal weight, you are unlikely to run into serious problems.* A gene on
chromosome 8 builds LPL, the key enzyme that stores fat in your cells. It waits
along the walls of the tiny blood vessels that course through your body fat, and
its job is to extract fat from your bloodstream and pass it into your fat cells for
storage.
If your LPL is doing its job a little too well, you can change this genetic tendency
by choosing foods that have little or no fat in them. Once again, vegetables, fruits,
legumes, and whole grains are your best friends.* The hormone insulin, coded on
chromosome 11, is part of your body's system for increasing your metabolism after
meals. Depending on the type of foods you choose, you can help insulin spark a
pronounced after-meal burn that releases calories as body heat rather than storing
them as fat. Low-fat, vegan diets, along with regular exercise, make insulin more efficient.
* Believe it or not, exercise aptitude is largely biological, too. People who love to go
for a five-mile run at the crack of dawn are genetically different from other people.
They are endowed with a better capillary network that brings oxygen to working muscles
and a more efficient fuel-burning mechanism. If you did not get these genetic advantages,
you can do the next best thing. If you begin a regular exercise program and stick with it,
your muscle cells begin to look more and more like those of natural athletes.There is no
need to be daunted by your family heritage. Yes, some of us will always be bigger and
others smaller. But with a healthy, low-fat diet and regular physical activity, your genes
can stop working against you and start working for you.
Another one in four people cannot taste PROP and are called "taste blind."
Their problem is they may tend to overeat, making up in quantity what they
are missing in taste. If this includes you, and you tend to be indiscriminate
in what you're eating, you'll want to take care to emphasize fruits, vegetables,
whole grains, and beans, and to be very cautious about fatty foods and their
hidden calories.* A gene on chromosome 7 makes leptin, the appetite-taming
hormone. In 1997, English researchers reported the case of two cousins who
became extremely obese very early in life. They demanded food continuously
and ate much more than their siblings. At age 8, one weighed 189 pounds. She
had so much trouble walking she had to have liposuction of her legs. Her cousin
was only two years old but already weighed 64 pounds. It turned out they shared
a rare mutation blocking the leptin gene.
With no leptin to curb hunger, their appetites were voracious.You are not likely
to have this same gene abnormality. However, your leptin may not be working
perfectly either. Very-low-calorie diets disrupt its appetite-taming effect, causing
your appetite to run out of control. The key to keeping leptin working right is to
avoid severe calorie restrictions. If you eat at least 10 calories per day per pound
of your ideal weight, you are unlikely to run into serious problems.* A gene on
chromosome 8 builds LPL, the key enzyme that stores fat in your cells. It waits
along the walls of the tiny blood vessels that course through your body fat, and
its job is to extract fat from your bloodstream and pass it into your fat cells for
storage.
If your LPL is doing its job a little too well, you can change this genetic tendency
by choosing foods that have little or no fat in them. Once again, vegetables, fruits,
legumes, and whole grains are your best friends.* The hormone insulin, coded on
chromosome 11, is part of your body's system for increasing your metabolism after
meals. Depending on the type of foods you choose, you can help insulin spark a
pronounced after-meal burn that releases calories as body heat rather than storing
them as fat. Low-fat, vegan diets, along with regular exercise, make insulin more efficient.
* Believe it or not, exercise aptitude is largely biological, too. People who love to go
for a five-mile run at the crack of dawn are genetically different from other people.
They are endowed with a better capillary network that brings oxygen to working muscles
and a more efficient fuel-burning mechanism. If you did not get these genetic advantages,
you can do the next best thing. If you begin a regular exercise program and stick with it,
your muscle cells begin to look more and more like those of natural athletes.There is no
need to be daunted by your family heritage. Yes, some of us will always be bigger and
others smaller. But with a healthy, low-fat diet and regular physical activity, your genes
can stop working against you and start working for you.
