Obesity- prevention and management (3)

Written by PAUL NANNA

THERE are certain beverages, known as diet sodas produced with artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, which is 180 times sweeter than sugar but do not contain any appreciable number of calories. This is where we ended our discussion on obesity last week Thursday.
       Apart from drinking the diet sodas, a lot of people with the weight problem are hooked on these artificial sweeteners. They believe it is a good replacement for sugar since one of those things they have been asked to avoid is sugar. This is because they believe it is impossible for them to do without the sweetness acquired from eating things sweetened with sugar. Such people use the sweeteners for their beverages, cereals and whatever else that would need to be sweetened.
           Now, here is the problem with the sweeteners and how they cause obesity. We have been told that they could be as much as 180 times sweeter than sugar but have no calories in them. When they get to the blood stream, the brain responds to their sweetness causing the pancreas to release insulin and because they do not contain any calories, there is no glucose to be moved into the muscles and so the hunger sensation is not satisfied. The brain at this stage causes the release of more insulin which is still ineffective. A condition characterised by hyperinsulinaemia and hypoglycaemia ensues.
        Simply put, there is too much insulin in the blood and very low glucose as the brain has reversed the processes from breakdown of glucose to storage; but there is no glucose to be stored. The individual will be persistently hungry and fatigued and will naturally attempt to satisfy the persistent hunger by binging! The end result is sustenance of obesity.
Management and prevention of obesity
      Having understood that obesity is a symptom of an underlying disease known as acid, our focus shall be on reduction of the production of acid in the body, neutralizing and eliminating the acid that may have been produced and stored in the fat cells. As I shall show to you, the weight reduction becomes a yardstick by which the response of the disease to management, can be measured.
Step 1 rehydration.  
         The only way to deal with dehydration is to rehydrate. You rehydrate by drinking water, period. The type of water you should drink is alkaline water (pH 9.0 – 10.0). The primary disease is acid and this acid can only be neutralized fast with alkaline water. The water is alkaline because it contains more electrons (negative charge) which will balance the protons (positive charge) that have accumulated in your body. As the acids get neutralized, the fat cells which had held them as protection against destroying the tissues and organs will gradually melt away.   
       Without acid the body has no need of the fat deposits, so they will of their own disappear. Not only that, the body performs better in an alkaline environment, which is brought about by the electrons in the alkaline water. The body is likened to an alkaline battery that has both positive and negative terminals. To have electrical energy to perform work there must be an excess of electrons in the battery, which are the carriers of energy. So also is the human body.
        The fatigue that is so easily encountered in obesity is because of the acidity (excess of protons) in the body. The goal of this programme will therefore be to neutralize the protons and have more electrons in the body. One of the changes that people who are undergoing this weight loss programme experience is increase in strength and this comes about as the pH balance begins to tilt toward the alkaline.
           Furthermore, with better hydration, circulation improves leading to better elimination of wastes, which should reduce the amount of acid some more. Your body needs an amount of water on a daily basis and you must know what that amount is and be ready to supply it.
        According to Dr Robert Young your body needs 1 liter of alkaline water for every 30 pounds of body weight. You may not be drinking that amount of water at the present time, so you need to determine how much you drink presently and deduct it from what your body should have. This is the additional quantity of alkaline water you will have to drink so as to supply the optimal amount of water your body needs daily. You do not have to drink all the short fall in one day. You can spread it over one or two weeks.