Visceral Fat and Inflammation

My husband, who retired from his private family medicine practice to teach medical students, just came home from a grand rounds lecture at the university.  That sentence sounds boring but I'm stoked, excited, and positively pumped over what he heard from a medical researcher today.

I've been pretty much flying by the seat of my pants trying to find possible causes for my fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms and searching for a cure or at least a way to feel better.  I've ditched processed food and been eating whole foods especially focusing on those that have anti-inflammatory properties and contain antioxidants that help strengthen the immune system.  My symptoms have completely resolved and the lecturer who spoke today shared part of the reason why.

It has to do with visceral fat and inflammation.  Visceral fat is fat that you cannot see that wraps itself around your internal organs, especially organs in the digestive tract including the stomach, liver, and spleen.  This type of fat causes chronic inflammation on a cellular level that leads to a host of diseases including autoimmune diseases like fibro and CFS.  (It also contributes to aging, heart disease, diabetes, depression, sleep apnea, and a bunch of other illnesses, in case you were wondering.)

And guess what is one of the main causes of developing visceral fat and the subsequent inflammation?  Eating processed food full of corn syrup, dyes, trans fats, preservatives, and other chemicals. Wow!  The speaker is working on a research project about this and will publish a paper about it when they complete the study.  He said we should never eat anything that comes out of a box, bottle, can, or package.  He recommends eating the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant foods I've been eating.  He said eating the Mediterranean type diet is a good place to start.  All of the patients who have followed his advice have significantly improved.  Many of them are completely symptom free.  That's amazing!

All the people they have tested who eat processed food, drink soft drinks, and consume other packaged products have high levels of visceral fat even if they are not visibly overweight.  That is the bad news.  If you fall into that group, don't despair, you can change your ways, pick yourself up and move on toward getting better.  Here's how:

Do not eat any processed food.

Stop drinking soda.

Eat lots of fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains.

Eat foods that have anti-inflammatory properties.

Eat foods that contain antioxidants.

If you want more information on getting rid of processed food in your diet, eating healthy foods, and clearing chemicals out of your life, check out previous blog posts.  I was sick for three years but after changing my lifestyle, I feel great.  The trade off of giving up certain foods for the blessing of feeling fantastic is a no brainer.  Nothing that I have eliminated from my diet tastes as good as I feel.

The researcher also recommends exercise to speed up getting rid of the visceral fat and inflammation.  We will save that to discuss another day.

What reasons could keep someone from eating a healthy diet?

Why does the processed food industry not want this information to get out?