Today we return to the supplement-pushers at T-Nation and a recent advertisement article they published concerning obesogens. Let’s see if they managed to get at least one thing right this time.
“Imagine a pair of identical twins. Let’s call them Robert and Matt. Imagine they’re separated at birth and adopted by different families. Now, fast-forward a few decades. Robert and Matt are overweight but decide to clean up their diets and start training. Both adopt the same nutrition and exercise plan. But then, things get weird.”
I never heard this (retarded) twin analogy before, I’m so intrigued (yeah, that’s sarcasm.)
“Robert loses fat easily. Matt, on the other hand, is struggling. Even when he’s disciplined, the fat sticks like globs of glue. It’s like his body is fighting against him. Sometimes, his cravings win. He wants to blame his “bad genetics,” but he has the same genes as his brother.”
Is this poking fun at Matt Weik at Ironmagazine? I bet it is.
As for genetics, that is pseudoscience. And even as twins, they have very different prerequisites concerning their body development and health, as they had to compete in the womb for nutrients — and if their mother did not consume a lot of animal food, there was even less nutrition to be had.
Of course, the years after birth are almost as vital. And from being a fetus and all through life, nutrition is key to everything. Unless you follow our natural human species-specific diet of animal-based foods, you will suffer — and we’ll get to that.
“Well, you say, Robert just has more willpower. Maybe so. Or maybe Matt does have something working against him. What if Matt was exposed to a bunch of chemicals that make fat gain easy and fat loss difficult?”
No, I would not say any of that nonsense, speak for yourself T-Nation (Shugart.)
And yes, the toxic load does play a huge role in fat accumulation and also in losing that fat. However, it’s more complex than that as it all goes back to the quality of nutrition and toxic exposure. A healthy body would be more than able to detoxify these chemicals. So, what hinders detoxification? Nutrient deficiencies from not consuming enough animal-based foods, often in combination with eating late — as the body can only detox properly when in a fasted state, as in between meals and especially during sleep. I’ve covered this many times, for example in my articles “No, Never Eat Late in the Evening or at Night” and “Eating In The Evening Contributes To Diabetes? Eating Late Is Always Bad!”
Also, excessive toxic accumulation can also be from a very high toxic load, especially if your body is compromised to any degree from what I mentioned above. The worst toxic offenders are any kind of plant-based and/or processed food, followed by beauty and self-care products, plastics, perfumes, and so on.
So, those poor fools who eat mostly plant-based garbage do not only succumb themselves to an extreme toxic load, they also hamper their ability to detoxify as that plant-based garbage contains very little nutrition, if any at all. That’s a very dangerous spiral.
“You don’t have to use your imagination. These chemicals are called obesogens.”
The term “obesogen” was first mentioned in the literature in 2006. It was coined by Felix Grün and Bruce Blumberg of the University of California, Irvine. Prior to this, in 2002, Paula Baillie-Hamilton noted the temporal coincidence between the beginning of the obesity epidemic and the spread of industrial chemicals, suggesting a potential link between endocrine-disrupting chemicals and obesity.
However, this is only one side of the coin, as these researchers usually can’t see the forest for the trees and they only focus on one single thing in a deep forest of issues.
The truth is, and I mentioned this in my old articles “What Makes You Fat?” and “The Simple Truth About Obesity (It’s Not Genetics),” that while obesogens can be stored away in newly formed fat cells to limit the toxic exposure and damage, so can any kind of toxin if your body is struggling to detoxify. It’s simply a defense mechanism, just like forming tumors and developing what is called “cancer.”
It’s not really necessary to look at every single chemical compound and toxin to see where or how it can attach to tissues and do damage, and which one is more prone to end up in fat cells or which one might be shielded off in a tumor. It does not really matter if it’s classified as a obesogen, a plant defense chemical, a plant antinutrient, or a heavy metal — they will all cause toxicity and damage, and they will all contribute to the toxic load and the likelihood of toxins getting stored either as body fat or in tumors. What is important is to understand that all these compounds are toxic and cause damage, and should therefore be avoided to the best of our abilities.
What Are Obesogens?
“Obesogens are a whole category of chemicals and compounds that disrupt normal hormonal function and metabolic health when accumulated in the body. Here’s what they can do:
- Increase the number and size of fat cells (adipogenesis).
- Disrupt normal appetite signaling and metabolism by mimicking or blocking hormones.
- Alter gene expression, leading to increased fat storage or changes in metabolic rate.
- Change gut bacteria in ways that promote fat gain.
- Make it easier to store fat and harder to burn fat.”
The third bullet-point about gene expressions is theoretical, as in complete and utter bollocks. As for the other bullet points, they are correct and they also apply to most toxins, including plant-based chemicals and compounds found in most plant-based and processed foods. The only way to avoid any toxin from a food source is by consuming our natural human diet of animal-based foods and thus avoid everything that is non-natural, non-species-specific, as anything from the plant kingdom (that obviously is very harmful to our physiology.)
“Some researchers say that obesogens “pre-program” the body to store more fat. But before you say, “Poor excuse! People are just overeating and under-exercising!” These same researchers note that obesogens alone do not cause obesity. Instead, they work behind the scenes to promote weight gain and make weight loss much tougher.”
No, chemicals, or toxins, do not program your body. You are not a computer. What is happening to these people is that their toxic load is so high and their detoxification ability so low, that their body has no other alternative than to shield off some of these toxins in fat cells. So, it’s not the toxins magically altering your physiology, it’s simply a “defense mechanism” against high toxicity that would damage your organs and thus kill you. However, this is mostly mitigated if fat storage is encouraged, as in consuming a lot of carbohydrates and/or seed/vegetable oils — and/or getting a lot more energy than your body uses for its processes.
If you do not over consume bad food, and perhaps exercise a bit, but still expose your body to a lot of toxins, fat storage will not be encouraged, and it will instead favor the development of tumors to shield off these toxins. With that said, even if fat storage is only encouraged a little bit, a high toxicity load will amplify that fat storage way beyond the “energy” you over-consume. Simple and logical.
However, as a note, that does not mean that those developing obesity is safe from “cancer” or developing tumors, as specific toxins will still be shielded off in tumors if they can’t be detoxified, and also, if the body can’t keep up with storing toxins in fat tissue, tumors will form as well. And additionally, that fat mass will be very toxic and will take a long time to lose, putting an enormous strain on your body, especially your cardiovascular system and your joints.
And that takes us to fat loss. If you have a lot of toxins stored in fat, your body will only release fatty acids from fat cells, and thus the accompanying toxins, at a safe pace where it can detoxify and eliminate these stored toxins. In other words, your body will not “drop a lot of fat” quickly only to end up poisoning and killing you from toxic overload.
So, if your toxic load is still high and you try to lose body fat, it will go a lot slower. Your fat loss might even stall at times, simply to prevent you from causing extreme damage to tissues and organs from a toxic overload. So, even if you undereat or do some fasting, your body will slow down other biological processes, as in your “metabolism,” while also making you tired, reducing your spontaneous activity, and so on, to preserve energy, as you can’t get the energy you need from your fat cells. Again, very simple and logical.
This is why I usually recommend my clients to “ease-in” into fasting if you’re overweight and want to lose body fat, as you need to get your body nourished and detoxifying while it also need to learn how to use fatty acids as fuel again, and all these processes take some time.
“Obesogenic chemicals don’t shove junk food into your mouth, but they do throw monkey wrenches into all the machinery involved in your metabolic and hormonal health. Training and dieting with a body full of obesogens is like driving a car with a flat tire, water in the fuel, and bad brakes. Your superb “driving discipline” doesn’t help much.”
While those are funny metaphors and analogies, it is easily fixed by adopting our natural human diet that is totally free of toxins while removing other environmental offenders, such as commercial hygiene-, beauty-, and self-care products. This will nourish your body while lowering the toxic load, increasing your body’s ability to detoxify. And once your body is in balance again, it can start using body fat as fuel, while being able to break down and eliminate the toxins that were encapsulated in that fat. It might take some time, as people who have switched to our natural human diet and previously were very toxic often experience great fat loss after several months, as if they suddenly pulled a plug.
Well, That’s Scary. So Where Are These Obesogens?
“Mostly in food, but they’re usually not naturally occurring. Other obesogens are drugs, and various forms hide in plastic products, personal care products (most things in your bathroom), cleaners, nonstick cookware, fragrances and air fresheners, sunscreens, water bottles, pesticides/herbicides/lawncare products, stain/water/fire-resistant materials and much more.”
Again, “obesogens” are simply one group of many different toxins. And that is why I do not like to use different labels or categories. It makes much more sense to recognize all toxins, as in everything that is harmful, as they all contribute to the toxic load and to damage in the body. And then you simply start to remove the worst offenders.
“Only a couple of natural foods contain obesogens: soy and fructose. Soy is easy to avoid. The main worry with fructose isn’t so much whole fruit, but rather fruit juice and sodas sweetened with sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. Also, honey is high in fructose. Obviously, the usual highly processed junk foods are full of various obesogens.”
Now, T-Nation shills, you contradicted yourself, as you usually do. Above you admitted that pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides all count as obesogens and then you simply mention soy and fructose? Fructose is a liver toxic “fruit sugar” and soy is a plant, a herb, which is used because of its oily seeds to produce an extremely toxic oil that is full of damaging isoflavones and other defense chemicals and antinutrients.
You have to be honest here. As you should know, pesticides are used in all commercial agriculture to control pests, including weeds, insects, fungi, and rodents. Insecticides are used to control insects and are often used in combination with other pesticides to manage pest populations. And herbicides are used to control unwanted vegetation, either selectively or generally, and are commonly used in the production of crops such as corn, soybeans, and wheat.
So, every single plant that is sold as an edible, as a slave food, is covered in either pesticides, herbicides, or insecticides, or all of them, and that means every single vegetable, legume, fruit, grain, seed, or other plant-based crap that is sold — including all processed slave food that is made from these worthless plant sources.
Now, add in all the defense chemicals, antinutrients, and heavy metals that are also part of these plants and adds to the extreme toxic load and you should finally be able to see the forest, how incredibly toxic these “edibles” are — not to mention that they do not even provide any kind of nourishment, as all “nutrients” within plants are inorganic and not bioavailable to humans unless converted by the body (a very limited and toxic process in itself, as I’ve covered multiple times — especially in my article “Plant Toxins, Accumulated Toxicity, Tissue Damage, And a Decreased Lifespan.”)
“Yes, it’s virtually impossible to avoid all obesogens, but you can ditch the non-stick pans and plastic cooking utensils, buy only scent-free products (including laundry products and deodorant), and avoid plastic as much as possible, mainly by not storing food in it or eating out of it. Buying organic helps, too.”
No, buying “organic” will not do sh*t, as all plants are inherently toxic and useless as nutrition. And again, while ditching all the crap you mentioned will help, you still need to focus on the larger picture, the forest, at what is natural and what is not natural for humans. If we follow our natural human carnivorous diet, we remove all toxic sources from our food, and from there, we only need to minimize exposure to environmental toxins as those you mentioned. This is not complicated, this is not hard to understand. It’s simple and logical. However, trying to vilify a few of the offenders while allowing other toxic sources will make it complicated and also a total waste of time as your toxic load will still be high. You will only fool yourself.
How Else Can I Fight Obesogens?
“You can sweat. This helps rid the body of any recently acquired obesogens that haven’t established residence in your fat cells.”
While the liver and the kidneys take care of most toxins unless they’re overburdened, we do expel some toxins, and especially those categorized as obesogens through our skin. However, sweating does not accelerate this process, just the opposite, as sweating is a reaction to stress, as in getting too hot — and whenever your body experience a stress response, it shift its resources to deal with that danger, which means less resources for other processes, such as detoxification and healing/repair of tissues. So, forcing yourself to sweat will not accelerate detoxification, it will only bring out what the body already has detoxified and is about to be pushed out through the skin. I covered all this in my article “There Are No Real Health Benefits Of Sweating.”
After this, T-Nation listed several toxic supplements that they manufacture and sell to gullible idiots; supplements that cause acute poisoning, as in a stress response, which again will not do anything more than harm your body. So, please, do not take anything. There are no remedies, plant-based supplements, artificial synthetic supplements, herbs, drugs, medicines, or similar that can magically make your body heal or detox, as those are natural processes that are always going on — and all these processes require to work as good as possible are bioavailable nutrients from animal-based foods and you actually being in a fasted state every now and then.
So, how can you fight all these toxins? Well, that is the wrong question. It’s not about fighting, it’s about avoiding. Why the hell would you want to poison and damage your body to begin with? And then try to take something as a “band-aid” to perhaps reduce the damage a little bit? That’s crazy.
The largest source of toxins is non-species-specific edibles, such as anything plant-based or processed, followed by any artificial- or plant-based supplements, drugs, and medicines. So, the first step is to eliminate all these unnatural sources. Simply transition to our natural human diet, and as a bonus, your detoxification system will finally be working at peak levels, which means that you do not need to worry as much about environmental toxins, as you will be able to detoxify most of them. Still, you will be healthier if you avoid all the crap we mentioned earlier, such as self-care and beauty products, as well as plastics and other useless crap.
And as for reducing body fat, that will happen quite effortlessly once you are following our natural diet and have gone through a detoxification cycle. If you need to speed it up, check my article archive and scroll down to the “Fat Loss, Body Composition and Fasting” section.
If you need help with any kind of health problems or transitioning from your current way of eating to our natural species-appropriate, species-specific way of eating, I’m available for both coaching and consultation.
Coaching and Consultation
And if you found the article and my insights helpful and enjoy my daily free information, please consider donating to help pay the webhosting bills and keep the site running. And if you’re interested in discussing and sharing information with likeminded people, consider joining our uncensored community at Ungovernable.se. Thank you!
