Understanding Metabolic Syndrome & It’s Causes
Metabolic syndrome is considered to be a combination of conditions that increase a person’s risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. In the U.S. 1 out of every 3 adults has metabolic syndrome. Further, if you have three or more of the following conditions, then there is a greater chance of having it.
-High blood pressure
-High blood sugar
-High triglycerides
-Low HDL cholesterol (checkout this video link for more on this controversial topic)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unhuwn4rz7U
-A large waistline
What do I think the contributing factors are? Over time, our demands for food have evolved in more than one way.
Since around the 1950’s onward, our population has expanded. With that comes demands, availability, ease of access, and an in-person experience at a restaurant. With greater demands, comes ordering in bulk. Just because something is in bulk, doesn’t mean it is of good quality. It’s actually more like the opposite.
How many popular restaurants aim for flavor versus health optimization? Just one minimal but powerful example is oil. Many restaurants use oil blends. Olive oil or some other oil turns out to be a combination of oils that are also seed oils such as vegetable and canola. These have a significantly greater ratio of omega 6 to 3 versus it being the other way around. This contributes to inflammation and plaque in the body. As if that wasn’t enough, many oils are stored in plastic. Then they are heated. It doesn’t matter if a food is deep fried or stir fried in a pan. The composition worsens, but it just makes the food tastier and appealing.
Then, we have our protein sources. The most common animal sources will be fed corn and soy. We have a similar concern of a poor ratio of omega 3 to 6. This is inflammatory to the body. Then, most of these animals are non-exercised, and in high stressed environments and conditions. That is what tends to get frequently purchased by restaurants and fast food chains – let alone what you see on sale at the average super market for the average family or individual.
In restaurants sauces and flavorings are layered for…you guessed it!…Flavor! Before you know it, your favorite dish has 20 low quality ingredients that has you coming back because it is endlessly doused in flavor, and sugars, oils, and flours that are bombs of inflammation.
Lastly, how often are we walking long or longer distances on a given day?
So here is what I’m really saying. I believe that the leading cause of metabolic syndrome as well as atherosclerosis (plaque buildup in one’s arteries) is due to the poor quality of the food, and in regards to an animal – I believe it is due to the animal’s diet, exercise, and high stress environment. This seems to mirror itself in the person that consumes it - and perhaps also doesn’t get movement, especially movement outdoors. Our demands seem to be centered around convenience, cost, and flavor.
That said, it seems like traditional western medicine highlights the cause to be one particular food in its whole form. Examples are when doctors and research scientists are on the news and deem that red meat and bacon cause cancer and increase cholesterol. Those get the bad wrap.
These claims seem to bypass a thorough discussion and consideration of the multiple variables I noted above (the poor quality of the food, an animal’s diet, lack of exercise, and high stress environment), and that in addition to extracting red meat and bacon - the patient must simply “eat better, eat less, and exercise more”. And when that doesn’t happen, you are prescribed medication.
Thankfully, education has been spreading more and more from speakers like Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Casey Means, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Dr. Joseph Mercola, Dr. Steven Gundry, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, Dr. Paul Saladino, Louisa Nicola, Ben Pakulsi, Ben Greenfield, Max Lugavere, Bobby Parrish, and many more.
In summary, convenience, cost, flavor, demand, access, and certain ways that businesses have evolved seem to directly correlate to the prominence of metabolic disease.
This blog post aims to provide you with education. If you have learned something from or resonated with this, realize that you do have control. While these variables can impact your level of control, it is best to have a plan. I offer general nutrition assessments whether or not weight loss is a goal of yours.
https://www.heart.org/en/news/2024/03/13/too-much-of-a-food-thing-a-century-of-change-in-how-we-eat
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/metabolic-syndrome
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/atherosclerosis
