Do you know that friend who can eat whatever she wants and can’t gain weight? In the meantime, do you eat all the right things and you can never lose weight, at least not for long? Sometimes you think: I feel that the bridge is tight against me and it’s not my fault. I have a slow metabolism. That’s how I was born. Well, now it looks like you can be right! There is a so-called fat gene – or a mutation on one of the important chromosomes – that determines in part who burns calories like a torch and who burns like a candle, and some unlucky people are born with it. But that doesn’t mean you have to give up in despair. On the contrary, there are ways to eat short-circuit that wires the cables and a doctor has advice on how to defeat it and you can.
“Your genes load the gun. Lifestyle pulls the trigger,” says Dr. Joel Kahn, who found out himself that he has the genetic trait that makes it easier to gain weight and lose it harder. Kahn is a vegan cardiologist and has been eating an herbal diet since the age of 18 and recognizes this healthy herbal approach (long on vegetables, low in fat and sugar) while keeping her weight under control. “I’ll never be as weak as some of my colleagues who eat like that, but I wore a husky suit to my mitzvah bar and I knew I’d have to change my diet.” He left the plant at the age of 18, but has since said he figured out how to manage his portion control and stay cut. But herbal consumption for 40 years has been the key to lifelong health and maintaining a healthy weight.
Joel Kahn not only learned how to eat healthily personally, but did the work of his life to help others do the same. He is the founder of the Kahn Center for Cardiac Longevity in Bingham Farms, Michigan, a clinical professor of medicine at Wayne State University School of Medicine and a bestselling author. The solution for the whole heart.
What does the “fat gene” variant do and can you counteract it?
“The proper name of the gene is the FTO gene, a small fragment on chromosome 16 that stands for fat mass and obesity,” Kahn explained. In a study by schoolchildren, they found that it does not affect the way your body handles calories, but increases how much you are likely to eat.
They identified children who had the FTO gene and offered them meals that were measured and weighed to see if they ate more. Indeed, students with the gene are likely to take in more calories at each meal than those without it. This is good news for anyone with the FTO variant, as it does not affect your metabolism, but is related to eating more foods, especially high-calorie foods, the study found.
“The FTO variant appeared to be involved in calorie intake, not in the way the body handles those calories,” according to the study’s authors.
The FTO gene appears to regulate ghrelin, a hormone that tells the body to eat more. if you eat a meal and ghrelin is still present, then the brain never receives the signal to stop eating. The FTO can make ghrelin longer for people who have the option than for those without it. For most people, because this is something they have had since birth, they learn to pay more attention to the signs of satiety and have to learn on their own when to stop.
How do you know if you have the fat gene, also known as the FTO variant?
To find out if you have the FTO variant on chromosome 16, you can pay for a genetic testing profile such as 23andMe or MaxGen, Kahn explains. He found out because he was in a group of genetic tests, which told him more about his health than most people learn without it.
If you have the option, don’t yell at your parents because you were the ones who passed this on to you (it’s likely that at least one of them struggled with their weight in their lives, after all). The good news is that you can do something about it. When you start spending more time in the product aisle, buying whole plant-based foods and eating a high-nutrient diet, it’s easier not to overdo it with high-calorie foods. If you do not have a sign of hunger that tells you to stop eating, then choosing foods high in fiber, which are full, rich in nutrients and healthy, will make it easier for you to control your weight and be satisfied. And since most people with FTO tend to overdo it on high-calorie foods, which researchers believe could eventually quench their appetite. So choosing a whole plant-based diet will also help you stay away from processed foods, Kahn explains.
DNA is the only thing you can’t change. Lifestyle habits have a greater impact
Instead of complaining that you may have this lack of a switch when you sit down to eat, think of all the good things in your DNA: your creativity and intelligence, your sense of humor, your strong arms, your smile. loving, great hair. And instead of trying a fad diet after a fad diet, simply give up the diet (which generally doesn’t work) and just start eating a clean, whole, herbal diet rich in vegetables and grains. , fruits and nuts, seeds, and anything that would normally grow in the ground. You will end up eating healthier than 90% of the rest of the Americans, who do not receive five servings of fruits and vegetables a day.
In a study by the Genetic Consortium for Early Growth (EGGC), which looked at 20,000 individuals of European descent, babies under two with the gene show no significant difference in BMI from the rest of the population, but once the baby is old enough old to feed on their own and not have normal signs of satiety, their BMI increases, so at the age of six there is a difference in BMI compared to those who do not have the variant. The study showed that this can have an effect on their ability to maintain a healthy weight, unless they learn to reduce their appetite and listen to subtle hints of satiety. This is also good news for all of us, because it shows that if teens with the genetic variant can learn to reduce their appetite with high-calorie foods, so can we.
Eating an herbal diet can be a game changer because it makes you feel full
“I was never the child who could win the 50 yard race at school,” he explains. He jokes that it was so slow that some people think it’s still running. If this is something you can relate to, then going herbal may be the right choice. “For some people, your BMI will never be so low. But I’ve kept mine in the normal range, eating this my whole life.” However, it helps you know your genetics and family history, he explains. He found out that he received the FTO gene from both parents, so it was a life of eating right to prevent this variant from winning.
“People who eat herbs will tell you that an oil-free, sugar-free diet will be bulletproof,” says Kahn. But even then you can be unlucky with a high cholesterol gene, so even though this is a healthy way to eat, he adds, you still need to see your doctor if you don’t know your family history. “If you eat a whole plant-based diet, you’ll be CLOSE to the bullet,” he adds.
Even if you go on herbs, you have to watch your food choices, adds Kahn, because “vegan” in itself is not synonymous with healthy. “You can eat vegan and still eat too much or you can load up on sugar. The environment has changed since I was a child, and now there are plastic phthalates and other chemicals in foods that just didn’t exist when I was a child.” In addition, he says, stressors prevent us from sleeping well, which further increases ghrelin. So, if you have this genetic variant, try to sleep more. “There are data about how we slept less than 30 or 40 years ago. All of this pressure has an effect on our diet and health. That’s why genetics could be more important.”
The term precision medicine or personalized medicine has its place in health care, says Kahn. “We are still a little far from practicing this, genetically based medicine,” so that doctors can treat patients differently depending on their DNA. Until then, eat healthy, sleep and have fun with your parents.