Introduction
Below you will find seven very powerful presentations about weight loss and wellness, with some discussing the role of insulin resistance and the endocrine system. You can download these presentations (and some others) as audio files on Box or Dropbox. They are most effective when heard repeatedly, and implemented slowly over time in your life.
It’s estimated that over 65% of Americans are overweight. That’s over 200 million people, and the crisis is only getting worse. According to the State of Obesity study, “More than 29 million American adults have diabetes and another 86 million have prediabetes.” So 116 million people are insulin resistant. That’s one in three people.
At the core of this epidemic is the fact that sugar is more addictive than heroine or cocaine. Sugar in the body causes increases in insulin, making us hungry and causing the body to create more fat. There’s reason to believe that artificial sweeteners don’t break this cycle. So, there’s no quick fix. This cycle harms the body in numerous ways ultimately resulting in high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and insulin resistance leading to Type 2 Diabetes. So, in summary, most of us are physically addicted to foods that are making us fat and causing us to be even more hungry the more we eat. Ultimately the addiction will kill us.
When you combine the addictive characteristics of carbohydrates with salty, crunchy, high fat foods, it becomes very difficult for people to stop eating when they should.
Those who stop consuming sugar and high carb snack food, by taking it out of their diet, will find that it’s much easier to be in a continual state of mild hunger without feeling a compulsion to eat something. This is important because the calories we actually need per day are probably much lower than what our hunger would drive us to eat every day. Everyone’s daily caloric needs are different. You may only need 1,500 calories per day, but if you’re eating sugar and carbs, your hunger will not let you be satisfied until you’ve had about 3,000 calories or more per day which is very easy to do considering you can get over 1,000 calories from a single fast food sandwich.
Because everyone’s metabolic rate is different, you may need to exercise much more and eat much less than someone else just to maintain a healthy weight. This doesn’t seem fair, but it’s a fact. You may need to maintain a 1,500 calorie diet, and exercise 90 minutes a day where someone else can eat 2,000 calories and exercise only 30 minutes a day for the same results.
Fifteen Factors for Wellness and Weight Loss
Here are five factors that can influence healthy weight loss that will be successful and permanent.
- Apple Cider Vinegar. Although low in common nutrients, Apple Cider Vinegar has acetic acid which aids in digestion and helping balance the body’s pH balance correcting for too much alkaline food consumption. The acetic acid improves insulin sensitivity. [Source: Dr. Berg Apple Cider Vinegar videos 1 and 2]
- Avoid Delicious Foods. Find foods that taste good, but not too good. Eat the foods that satisfy you without inducing cravings for more. This will help you feel content and comfortable on a low calorie diet that actually meets your daily caloric requirements. Keep in mind that eating this satisfying low calorie meal plan is the only way you can lose weight and keep it off.
- Avoid Sugar. Eating sugar will increase hunger. The body stores sugar as fat. Cancer feeds on sugar. [Source: Dr. Berg Anti-Cancer Video and Anti-Diabetes Diet]
- Exercise for Energy. Exercise not to burn calories, but to stay energized, boost your overall daily metabolism, and keep your hunger suppressed. Choose shorter 20 minute energizing activities that give you more energy rather than overdoing it with 90 minutes at once. This will also help you avoid injuries. Don’t overdo it in duration or intensity because that will make you tired, which will make you want to eat for energy. Avoid intense activities that may result in injuries. Getting outdoors helps.
- Fasting. Going without food for 3-4 hours per day or more is a practice called intermittent fasting. Studies suggest this practice could help increase longevity and quality of life. It is shown to help burn fat also. [Source: Dr. Berg Fasting Video]
- Hunger as Exercise. It’s common to track weight lifting, running, biking, elliptical, and other activities as exercise. Try adding hunger to your list of workouts. When you start to feel hunger, look at the time and then track how long you can hold that feeling of hunger without giving in to snacking, or postpone eating by a few minutes. Get in control of hunger. Try leaning over while seated, and crunch into your stomach to put pressure on your abdomen. This can help reduce the sensation of hunger.
- Lime Juice. To cleanse the body, drink lime juice. One lime should produce about 1/4 cup of juice. You can mix that with fizzy mineral water. This helps cleans the liver and also provides much needed electrolytes. [Source: Dr. Berg Lemon videos 1 and 2]
- Music Motivates. If you want to give yourself an extra boost of energy, try listening to music that you find motivations. When it’s time to rest, choose music that is soothing and relaxing.
- Nuts and Seeds. Nuts are a good source of protein and good fats. Almonds, Brazil nuts, Macadamia nuts, Pecans, and Walnuts are excellent choices because they are high in fiber, protein, and nutrients. Be sure to check the nutrition label and choose those offering the highest mineral content. Some nuts are high in carbs and calories with not much nutritional value such as Cashews, Peanuts. These can be avoided. Seeds offer more nutritional benefits than nuts. Examples are: sunflower, hemp, chia, and flax. [Sources: Dr. Berg Nut Videos 1, 2] Pumpkin seeds are a great source of manganese, phosphorous, copper, magnesium, ink, omega 3, phytoestrogens, tryptophan, vitamin E. [Source: Dr. Berg Pumpkin Seed video]
- Oatmeal. Eating 1/2 cup of oatmeal per day can help provide necessary fiber and Beta Glucan to help reduce cholesterol. However, choose slow cooked steel cut oatmeal for a lower glycemic index of about 55. Instant oatmeal has a glycemic index of about 83. [Source: Dr. Berg Oatmeal Video]
- Salad. Consider having one or two big salads daily of about 5 to 7 ounces (5-7 cups) each. Use vinaigrette dressing with oil of olive, safflower, or sunflower. Avoid oil from soy, corn, or canola.
- Sleep is Essential. Do whatever you can to improve you sleep. Proper sleep helps increase metabolism and helps keeps us energized during the day so we don’t eat food in search of daytime energy.
- Supplements Help. Your body craves food, but what it’s really craving is energy and nutrition. Taking nutritional supplements can help to satisfy your body’s desire for nutrition.
- Train Your Mind. Read books, watch videos, and listen to audio messages about weight loss and wellness. Referring to non-commercial science-based resources is best. The videos below are a good place to start.
- Veggie Juice. Recently it’s become easier to find cold pressed vegetable juices or green drinks. Some will get their sweetness from fruits, and may have as much sugar as a can of soda. So, read the label and choose a green drink with lower carbs and sugar. Examples of cold pressed juice products would be Evolution Fresh, Daily Greens, and Suja Juice.
Videos to Inform and Inspire
The following videos help inform and inspire. It’s not just enough to have information. We need inspiration and insights to transfer that information into ongoing consistent actions that will produce long-term positive results.
We think of ‘inspiration’ as something that’s positive — a message that will tell us ‘This is easy! You can do it!’ Yet we sometimes need a more honest message that says ‘This is incredibly difficult and you won’t be able to do it unless you work really hard at it.’ It’s that second message of inspiration that gives people the courage, strength, determination, commitment, and persistence required to succeed with weight loss. It’s a wake-up call to warn people about what they are really up against. So, these videos offer a little bit of both.
#1 – The Science and Biology of Weight Loss
This first video was actually an NPR broadcast from October 2011. It’s been converted to a video for easy sharing on this page. It’s one of the most powerful and comprehensive messages on dieting and weight loss available.
#2 – Reversing Type 2 Diabetes
In this TED Talk video from May 2015, Dr. Hallberg offers a simple zero-cost cure and prevention protocol for Type 2 Diabetes. From the description on YouTube: “Dr. Sarah Hallberg is the Medical Director of the Medically Supervised Weight Loss Program at IU Health Arnett, a program she created. She is board certified in both obesity medicine and internal medicine and has a Master’s Degree in Exercise Physiology. She has recently created what is only the second non-surgical weight loss rotation in the country for medical students. Her program has consistently exceeded national benchmarks for weight loss, and has been highly successful in reversing diabetes and other metabolic diseases.”
#3 – How to live to be 100+
In this video from April 2013, Dan Buettner shares the results from a Blue Zone Expedition study examining how people can be healthy beyond the age of 100. From the YouTube description: “To find the path to long life and health, Dan Buettner and team study the world’s “Blue Zones,” communities whose elders live with vim and vigor to record-setting age. In his talk, he shares the 9 common diet and lifestyle habits that keep them spry past age 100.”
#4 – Why dieting doesn’t usually work
In this video from January 2014, Sandra Aamodt talks about how unless done properly, attempts to lose weight may be counter productive. From the YouTube description: “In this honest, raw talk, neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt uses her personal story to frame an important lesson about how our brains manage our bodies, as she explores the science behind why dieting not only doesn’t work, but is likely to do more harm than good.”
#5 – Is the obesity crisis just a disguise for a deeper problem?
In this TED Talk from June 2013, Dr. Peter Attia discusses the deeper underlying biological causes of obesity. “Step one is accepting the possibility that our current beliefs about obesity, diabetes, and insulin resistance could be wrong and therefore must be tested. I’m betting my career on this.” Peter Attia, MD, President and co-Founder of the Nutrition Science Initiative, says we don’t know enough about the science of weight gain, and that clinicians — and society — should stop blaming the victims.
#6 – Why we can’t stop eating unhealthy foods
The food industry is using MRI machines to analyze brain activity for the forming of foods to be highly addictive. In this video from November 2015, Laura Schmidt discusses how sugar replaced cocaine as the ingredient of choice for companies wanting their foods to become habit forming. Today, about 75% of foods in the grocery store have added sugar. Now, children are getting adult diseases. “This is the global warming of human health.”
#7 – Obesity is a National Security Issue
In this presentation from Dec 2012, Lieutenant General Mark Phillip Hertling talks about how obesity has become a national security threat. Hertling is the Commanding General, US Army Europe and Seventh Army. In that role, he is the commander of the approximately 42,000 U.S. Army forces assigned to Europe. Among 17-24 year olds, 75% are obese and unfit to serve in the military. Among the other 25%, more than half were unable to pass the first day physical training (PT) test that required 1 minute of push ups, 1 minute of sit ups, and a 1 mile run. Americans eat about 30% more calories today compared to 1983 and 15 pounds more sugar per year. We’re spending nationally about $200 billion on the health impact of childhood obesity.
Additional Video Resources
Here are some additional resources for further reading and research.
- “Fasting vs. Eating Less: What’s the Difference?” is a video from June 2017 about the benefits of fasting.
- “How do carbohydrates impact your health?” is a presentation from January 2016 by Richard Wood. “The things we eat and drink on a daily basis can impact our health in big ways. Too many carbohydrates, for instance, can lead to insulin resistance, which is a major contributor to cardiovascular disease and Type 2 Diabetes. But what are carbs, exactly? And what do they do to our bodies? Richard J. Wood explains.” The full lesson is online at TED Ed.
- “How the food you eat affects your brain” is a TED Ed presentation by Mia Nacamulli from June 2016. “When it comes to what you bite, chew and swallow, your choices have a direct and long-lasting effect on the most powerful organ in your body: your brain. So which foods cause you to feel so tired after lunch? Or so restless at night? Mia Nacamulli takes you into the brain to find out.”
- “Is Ketosis Dangerous?” is a video from 2 Jul 2017 that examines the impact of Ketosis which is the state the body goes into when we fast or live on a low carb diet.
- “Longevity & Why I now eat One Meal a Day” is a video from July 2016 about the benefits of eating one meal a day.
- “Losing Weight the Cool Way” – Cooling the body will help you lose wight says Patrick Rensen, Professor of Endocrinology at Leiden University Medical Center, in this TED Talk from April 2015.
- “The psychological weight loss strategy” is a TED Talk presentation by Laurie Coots with some powerful suggestions for weight loss, 14 Dec 2016.
- “The science is in: Exercise isn’t the best way to lose weight” is a video that explains how exercise is very important, but not a huge factor in weight loss. Published by Vox on 29 Jun 2016. Note that exercise may help you sleep better and be more active throughout the day. So, while seemingly not a primary factor, exercise can ultimately help with weight loss.
- “WHY Sugar is as Bad as Alcohol” is a video posted in November 2016 about the dangers of sugar consumption. Most of the content in this video is based on Dr. Robert Lustig’s 2012 book “Fat Chance,” his 2007 presentation “Sugar: The Bitter Truth” and a 2011 paper he co-authored “Toward a Unifying Hypothesis of Metabolic Syndrome”.
Take Action!
The following videos from Dr. Eric Berg DC can help you take action for positive wellness results.