Obesity - the clash between two realities: Warren Peters at TEDxLaSierraUniversity

I was a 25 year old first year surgery resident just walking out of the operating room just putting somebody back together it's kind of cool stuff you know maybe maybe just a little smug and then I got the phone call dr. Peters yes my name is dr. Wilson I'm at the Auburn emergency room your father is dead I go dead he's only 54 years old old I know he's hypertensive and he's on a lot of medications he's under a lot of stress and the only cooking utensil that he ever used was a cast-iron skillet and he could never control his weight but now he is dead changed my professional life in my personal life and the same experience will happen to 300,000 Americans this year from weight related diseases heart disease cancers diabetes all of these kinds of things that are related to obesity that's like 822 people dying every day that's like a couple jumbo jets crashing every day do you think that might kind of get our attention somehow and so what's driving this epidemic and it's a worldwide epidemic it's more people in per capita in Mexico are dying from obesity now than the United States this is going around the world what is it what is it all about well I'll give you a couple options so first of all we can take a 14th century myth I mean obviously it's the cardinal sins you know like sloth and gluttony you know it's it's a you know pay your money and forgiving maybe maybe that's the solution you see and sadly this myth permeates our world today in society and even in the medical community if you could hear the stories my patients tell me about coming back from a provider who told them to just buck up just eat less and exercise more I mean look at me you know it works for me how comes it doesn't work for you this inference that it is sloth and gluttony permeates that 14th century myth we've carried in to the 21st century what does 21st century science look like what we find is that our environment has radically changed and our biology is basically the same as it's always been and so we begin to see that there's something going on here I mean think about that the deer hunter gatherers you know I mean all they did was spend time trying to find food a lot of physical activity went in that's the biology that we're starting with right here is to look for food and then we got through the Agricultural Revolution and now we could actually store some grain and well that was kind of cool now we had some spare time and we could come up with arts and religion and look at the Stars and do all kinds of amazing things and then finally after thousands and thousands of years we hit this Industrial Revolution the environment is massively engaged I know that it looks kind of normal to you can I just see a show of hands how many of you carried buckets of water out of the creek this morning no I'm sorry of chopped wood I hope you didn't grind oats you know no you know you just went to a vending machine or something you see so obviously the the world is very very different the environment in just three hundred short years so we have thousands of years of physical activity and suddenly we have to do nothing and in this industrial revolution there's something about that is actually changed about our foods and you know it's it's all prepared it's it's already there people were wondering how many calories it takes to go through a drive-through I mean that's that's an important question what you say I mean how many calories are you going to burn well before we do that one how would we all agree that it would be very simple to pick up 2,000 calories of food is are you ok with that mm I think that would be pretty average mm now I look this up and 2,000 calories would be like 20 ears of corn so think about it if we were back in that agricultural era where we had to raise 20 years of corn so you know we cut the row and then we plant the seeds and then we rake it and we tamp it and we water it my dad taught me all this stuff and and and then you know that the plant actually grows and and now the ear the ear of corn is there and so we pick it and we have to husk it and we dry it then we take the corn and we grind it and then we chop the wood and we put the corn bread in the oven and we finally get corn bread that we can eat I mean I'm amazed that they even made it you know it seems like they burn more calories than what they got but 2,000 calories we're going to get through this one trip through the drive-thru now this is how it kind of goes you know you come around in the corner like this I saw it here at Starbucks here this morning you just kind of pull in like this and you push this little button you know and your window goes down and that's kind of cool you know me that you know let's if you burn some calories I'm sure and and and so then you go you know I'm not like a double frying milkshake and whatever and Oh would you just you know make that gigantic or it's double size or triple size or jumbo size or something and whatever it is we get our order in now we do have to push the button again and you know nowadays you know you really don't have to put it the clutch in you just you know just put put your foot on the pedal and move on around and now this is kind of where the heavy lifting starts now because if you're a woman you have to reach down and pick up your purse you know to get your money out and if you're a man you have to reach back and get your billfold out now I'm told that we're going to be able to skip that step pretty soon because if you have a fast track it'll just deduct the cost of the food from your little you know your little pad there so then you won't have to do that so that'll save a few calories but anyway we're still on on this research so now we not only push the button okay reach our arm you know this is pretty gigantic and so so how many calories do you think we actually burn we're going to get 2,000 how many do you think 50 calories hundred calories 210 seven calories seven towers seven calories for 2,000 calories of food when in the history of humankind have we ever ever seen that and so suddenly we begin to buy foods very differently and as you can see from this graph the money that Americans spend now this is just in 30 short years so from 1982 to 2012 you can see what has gigantic Lea changed is how much of our money is spent on processed sugary foods and drink I mean the real foods you know like meats and fruits and vegetables and things like that we don't buy much of that anymore and then this whole thing it brings us back to ok what is the biology that's going on here what is the basic biology that has not changed that then is brought into an environment which is radically radically changed so this is kind of how it works you know we eat food it goes down into our stomach stomach digests it and then we have this beautiful little system there's a insulin this insulin is made by the pancreas and it directs the calories into muscle for muscle activity remember the hunter-gather and the agricultural guy that was using his hoe this is for muscle activity now if we get kind of lucky and we have a few more calories then that insulin will direct that those calories into the liver and there it'll be stored so that we won't have to wake up hungry because it's right there and if we're really lucky and we have even more calories those calories are now going to be directed to form fat cells now what's so beautiful about this system is that the fat cells as they accumulate send a message back to the brain that you no longer are hungry that you no longer have to eat more and oh and by the way you feel so good that you're going to work until the Sun sets it's a wonderful sort of thing so as the fat cells decrease then you get more hungry then you eat more it's a system that just works in the usual old time environment that we no longer have are you beginning to get the picture what science is telling us about obesity now in the midst of this during these 30 years and doing these 300 years suddenly we have plenty of food there's 88 thousand different process foods that we have available to us in America I mean all these little packages and stuff you know kids probably don't even know that cheese came from a cow or that bread came from grain or they just they don't know these things because it all comes in little packages now get this 82% of those processed food have added sugar you think that happened by accident I'll tell you why it's there we just indulge in our children in our you know everybody I mean even from the little guys that are just weaned from their mother's breasts instead of going to food just normal foods or to water even they're given apple juice apple juice has more sugar in it actually even than a soda does and they're just bombarded with all these sweet things and sugar is indeed addictive all of a sudden this whole beautiful system begins to get ragged here because leptin that was supposed to come from the fat cells and tell us not to eat more now says I am starving I am hungry oh and by the way I'm so tired I definitely don't want to go out and work in the garden or I guess we don't have Gardens so I'm not going to go to the gym that message is totally totally disrupted and it says just the opposite it says eat more do you think we might have a problem with that sort of scenario and in my journeys through the scientific community on the area of obesity I met this gentleman Sir jammied a pretty cool guy and but it has a rat model that is quite interesting this little rat lives in a cage and it gets intravenous cocaine if it pushes a button you know pretty happy a little rat probably so he was curious about the sugar remember 82 percent of all foods have added sugar he knew that it's more than likely addicting so he was kind of wondering what would happen if you had a cocaine addicted rat and you just offered it some sugar so now the little rat has two buttons he can either push the cocaine button or he can push the sugar button in 72 hours all the little rats have switched to sugar and sweet amazing isn't it science tells us that this is addicting so you begin to see that obesity is in an environment that has radically cataclysmically changed in 300 short years and our biology continues to be that same where we need we want we need we want food is how we survive so let's think about we're going to make a change before we make a change we better understand what's not going to change do you think that the stock market would stand still or the investors would stand still if a food company decided to make healthy food and the market share began to drift off yeah do you think corporate America is going to make that change I don't think so now you would think that with two jumbo jets crashing every day it would kind of maybe get our governments attention like whoa something's really wrong here do you think the government is going to tell you what you have to eat I don't think so I mean first of all I can't agree on anything so it's very unlikely that this would fly very much you see and we already know that we're not going to start walking to work when we have freeways and we live 70 miles from where we work that the transportation system isn't going to radically change that we're hoping that there will be some adjustments that we can make in our urban areas and the other thing is our biology is not going to change so what are we going to do what can we now do to make a difference and we can I know we can humanity over and over again has overcome immense obstacles we have a problem with obesity around the world we must we must we have to conquer this and we can so what's going to change well first of all we all ought to get together and get rid of this 14th century myth you know that that would be a good starting point is let's kind of kind of get into the 21st century if that's okay don't kind of leave that old thing behind now if you happen to be a thin biology you're kind of lucky to be here because you're in the minority you know I mean you can't store fat you use calories and efficiently I mean it you're not going to make it you know it's it's it's so-so just kind of you know know that you're definitely on the edge here a little bit now there's a warning and that is that even if you're thin have a thin biology and you use these processed foods you can override that biology and this moment in this room those of you that are thin 30% of you are on the way to diabetes the fastest growing form of diabetes right now is in thin people so you got to kind of watch out here you just can't just strut around and say well I can eat anything it's not true so if you're thin here's what you can do avoid this this kind of excess sugars and processed foods when you go to a grocery store only shop around the periphery of the store that's where grocery stores have real food you know that's where you can get eggs and you can get meat and you can get vegetables and you can get fruit never ever go in the central part you know that's that's a scary place you see so just don't go there because we can change America if the thin people will stop eating this junky stuff you see if you don't buy it they won't make it you see and you're biologically not drawn to this you can make that choice you're the few people that can make that choice for goodness sakes make the choice and then be sure and make some time where you can actually use your muscles I mean you know you know buddy can you imagine having a treadmill in the cave in the cavemen days you know I mean you know everybody just worked you didn't have to make work I was at a fancy hotel the other day and I thought it was kind of the cool thing they had taken all their exercise was manual work you know like you would flail you know like you're flailing grains or you'd be making ropes go up and down of course you had some good music you know and they were calling out what you should do and everything to go hey well we're getting back to work here you know we have to fake it but we can do it so be sure and get some exercise exercise is critical most importantly support your friends and families that family members that have the heavy biology now if you have a heavy biology just so you know you're in the majority you are the survivors you are the ones that can store fat you are the ones that use calories efficiently and you may be the reason why I spin people are actually here because it has persisted through thousands and thousands of years of turmoil and the heavy biology is what has brought us here with all of that aside for you the heavy biology people this is like walking through a minefield food everywhere and it has to realize you did not create this environment you did not choose this biology it is not your fault but guess what it is your responsibility so if you know that you have a heavy biology and you know the story about dr. amis little rat and you know that this is a true addiction we're going to have to do something very different we're going to have to seek help seek help from providers that actually understand this reality the reality that obesity is caused by a biology that is consistent in an environment that has radically changed seek help because you cannot use cocaine moderately and if your cocaine addicted you don't have to use cocaine but guess what you do have to eat and 82% of those processed foods have added sugar for your addiction you're going to have to go through rehab and you're going to have to go through withdrawal this is a serious true withdrawal for four days of every month four days of every month you're going to go through a drawl no corn no wheat no rice no potatoes and no sugar all five of those foods are addictive because they convert quickly to sugar so you drop them off and you eat protein and vegetables and protein and food protein and vegetables protein and fruit no corn no wheat no rice no potatoes and no sugar this is not a good time in your life so don't plant it just before your get on your wedding day or something this headache grouchy hungry but after four days you're through the worst and you can continue to eat the healthy foods that you're not addicted to for the rest of that month pretty much but you have to eat food 82% of those foods you can't give even get a chip without sugar in it 82% of those foods have added sure you will get reiative so just plant it a lot of our dear people have to do this now you also might consider pharmacology so I've told you that this biology is very consistent that biology particularly within the brain can be altered with some medications and pharmacies pharmaceutical schools research around the world is trying to figure out how can we help people accommodate for this reality of an unchanged biology and these medications can be useful to you now thirdly bariatric surgery is another option pretty radical but it's very useful and the the safety of the bariatric surgery has become in credits a Calise fer now to have bariatric surgery than it is to have your gallbladder out so this particular area of surgery is research that's very very carefully and get this the brain chemistry changes and the addiction piece is gone I just can just see with such pleasure my patients have had bariatric surgery or with medication and they come in and they go dr. Peters for the first time in my life I don't feel like I'm controlled by food you know you'd think they'd say well I feel good on lost weight and so I know it's about the brain I don't feel addicted to food and surgery is certainly an option so we have this clash between an environment that's radically changed in a biology that hasn't changed we can make a difference over and over and over humans have overcome things this is a big one this is a huge one because we like food or biology attracts us to food but it's killing us but we can do it and we can just get out of the rut that we're currently in with knowledge and courage you

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Keywords: grain, tedxtalks, ted, Medicine (Field Of Study), ted talks, dead, tedx talk, research, help, tedx talks, tedx, biology, Obesity (Disease Or Medical Condition), corn, obesity, vegetables, medication, surgery, lose, TEDx, protein, physician, cocaine, heavy, food, nutrition, thin, healthy, history, fat, sugar, weight, study, chemistry, sick, doctor, meat, loma linda university, how-to, la sierra university, addiction, ted x, ted talk, grocery, wellness, brain

Id: O5wRwzZ2RbI

Length: 24min 10sec (1450 seconds)

Published: Fri May 16 2014