The Diane Rehm Show

This is a hugely significant topic.

There is an underground movement that is addressing this issue by educating individuals to live in a manner that will assist them in maneuvering successfully through this food landscape. This lifestyle has saved my life. I developed a severe allergy to gluten and almost died a number of times.

I would not know what to do without the help of nutritionists and scientists who have looked at the diets of our distant ancestors (prior to the onset of agriculture around 10,000 years ago) and have suggested successful healthy lifestyles.

This movement is called by a number of things: Paleo (short for the Paleolithic era), Ancestral, Primal or JERF (just eat real food).

The solutions are NOT intuitively obvious; we need to learn together how to survive in this situation.

The epidemic rise of excess weight gain/obesity is directly linked to the over-consumption of junk food/drink carbohydrate. The powerful attraction to this type of corrupted nutrition is linked to depleted levels of a key chemical messenger in the brain called Serotonin.When Serotonin levels are depleted, people experience a blue mood or mild depression that can be relieved for a short period of time by consuming certain food/drink(Mood food,comfort food).In essence, Americans are self medicating with a type of food/drink that forces the body to store fat(Chips, sodas, white bread, pastries, pizza,etc.).This low Serotonin condition does not lead to cravings for tuna fish and brocolli! Mr. Moss makes the common mistake of implicating fat in the diet. Americans are consuming less fat than ever and a trip to any mall will reveal the low fat movement to be a miserable failure.In fact, eating fat provides us with the feeling of satiety or fullness. When the low fat craze got full traction, the average American started to consume an additional 500 calories per day(!83,000 per /yr 52 lbs of fat!!!!).When humans eat fat, the duodenum is stimulated to produce Cholecystokinin, a hormone that triggers the gall bladder to constrict and effuse bile into the system. Bile salts break down the fat for absorption. If you eat too much fat, the body will over produce bile and you will feel nauseated and regurgitate. This is called the body's satiety feedback mechanism.The number one selling drugs in America...SSRI's!!!!

Have you discussed how toxic Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil is? Fat/oil is what our bodies make our cells out of and the Hydrogenated Vegetable/Margarine oil is very close to plastic. Flies won't even eat it.This toxin is probably in your potato chips plus everything that says things like "Buttery Spread" or "Tastes Just Like Butter." It's a main issue in obesity that NEVER gets addressed.

Also Aspartame (in most all of the diet drinks) turns into Formaldehyde in the body. Could that be what's killing our young athletes on the ball field?

What about GMOs????? They may cause future problems with our foods and Monsanto spends millions hiding information about it.

LOVE YOU SHOW!!! Haven't heard anyone address many of the main underlying problems about obesity as you did today.

I have come to the conclusion that literally all processed foods that come packaged in some form or another have additives that are harmful to our cells, namely in the form of chemicals, like MSG. MSG, by the way, is diguised under a long list of a 50 plus names like carageenan, broth, sodium, isolated whey protein, isolated soy protein, natural flavors, hydrolized corn gluten, autolized yeast, yeast food, textured protein, pectin, buillon, yeast extract, maltodextrin, barley malt, malt flavoring, seasonings, flavors, natural, citric acid, etc., just to name a few. MSG is a neurotoxin connected to neurodegenerative diseases and brain lesions. Think of all the diseases connected to neuro disorders, people.

This is just one example of one chemical that's added to our "food" source to enhance flavor and preserve contents. Did I mention that MSG causes 3 times the amount of insulin to be made by the pancreas than sugar? Talk about diabetes and obesity and people having a hard time losing belly fat. Cut out anything with the long list of disguised MSG and I'll bet you'll be able to drop the pounds and feel like a new person. Try it. I have and I am sold. I am a new person. It's very easy to cut out these horrible chemicals from our diets by drinking only water and shopping in produce sections only. Watch out for those "diet" drinks of any sort. They are scary!! All soda is scary, in my opinion. Read up, folks. It's not that hard to figure out that money is the driving force behind supplements and junk food, which includes all processed foods. Eat fresh and you won't need your expensive supplements and/or diet foods. Just try it for a week and see how your skin feels and your hair and your eyes and head. No gimmicks. No hidden agenda. Just FRESH!! Chemicals are destroying our society. Chemicals alter our cells and deform them. Good luck. It's not that hard.

Gary, very interesting that Americans started eating more calories as the fat was removed from foods. Quality seems to be more important than quantity. Don't our brain & nervous system require fats? M.

Yes, good fats. Eat the good fats which are abundant in good oils like olive, coconut, and in seeds like chia seeds. There are many good sources of good fats, sardines, salmon, etc. We thrive on fats but not the kinds that society throws in packaged, processed food. Go fresh and you'll get what you need.

I loved your show today. I would have never changed the way I shop and cook for my family, if it weren't for my kids. My daughter had years of chronic constipation and missed a lot of school, due to stomach aches. The summer before 4th grade, she had a blood test that let us know that she has an intolerance to wheat, corn, rice and dairy. It took me about a month to get enough recipes figured out and I read for hours to find new foods, new ways of cooking and things that might make her feel better. While most of the things that we bought had changed, my son still bought school lunches, had snacks and fast food. He was in third grade, possible had ADD (inattentive not disruptive) and we thought dyslexia. He has had the same problems since preschool with reversals and generally a really hard time with school work. He had a red gateraide one afternoon and he was TERRIBLE. Crying, hitting, fighting and completely out of control...these episodes were weekly, grounding was constant and nothing worked. He had a second red gateraide 2 days later and the same thing happened. It finally clicked for me...he has a sensitivity to food coloring. We changed him to the Finegold diet (no artificial colors, flavors or additives) and my son is a new person. Grades have jumped up, calmer personality, no more grounding..it's like his brain woke up. He took me aside and asked me if his personality had always been so crazy before and I said yes. He told me that it's sad that he didn't know his real personality until he was nine. All of the garbage in our food is killing us.

Great show, I listen often. I was a bit surprised today though Ms. Rehm when you cut off Mr. Wilson while discussing bread. I think you're better than that, it was a little bit to Fox Newsie for me. Thank you.

@xenapw2011 - Re: "It's actually a myth that saturated fat and cholesterol are bad for you."

This will surely be news to your cardiologist.....and mine. The US dietary admonitions come from many studies and physicians, not just the media.
Maybe you lead a charmed life and have naturally low cholesterol....maybe saturated fat is not to your liking.....maybe you can beat the odds. I surely hope so for your sake.

I fully understand the constant pressure put on Diane Rehm to prove that her show does not have a liberal bias (particularly since Rove's friend Kenneth Tomlinson was in charge of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and specifically investigated her and Bill Moyers), so she and her team so often try to present "both sides" of an issue.
Unfortunately, when one of the "sides" is presenting Facts reached by legitimate scientific research and evidence, the countering "side" must represent Non-Facts based on propaganda designed by hidden agendas.
To put it bluntly, the other side of Truth is Falsehood. One must then look at who gains from the Falsehood. So, here's a little more about The Center for Consumer Freedom: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Consumer_Freedom
The organization argues for "right of adults and parents to choose how they live their lives, what they eat and drink, how they manage their finances, and how they enjoy themselves" -- which sounds fair enough in theory. But the logic crumbles when that right to choose is thwarted when people are deliberately misinformed.
If possible, Diane, if you have to present "both sides", would you please at least make it clear when one of the sides is simply a corporate lobbyist?